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The Princess of Manoa 



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" She tripped on over the 

springy grass, singing in a voice 

that sounded at tinxes like the 

sweetest whisper of the wind, 

and again like the gentle 

patter of raindrops." 



The 



Princess of Manoa 

and Other Romantic 

Tales from the Folk-lore of 

Old Hawaii 

hy Mrs. Frank R Day 

Illustrated hy D. Howard Hitchcock 

Let us still honor the romance of 
youth, whether it be the child- 
dreams of the present or the 
race-visions of the past. It is 
leaven to the world's wisdom. 




w^ww 



Paul Elder and Company 

San Francisco and New York 






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Copyright, 1906, by 
Paul Elder and Company 



LiBBAHY or CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

DEC 3 1906 

^ CfiWrleM Entry 
CLASS X ^^•^■' ^ 



COPY B. 



To F'omander*a "History of 
the Polynesian Islands,** to Mr. 
Dagget's *' Hawaiian Myths'* 
and to various native friends 
are due the thanks for the in- 
cidents of the following tales. 




List of Chapters 

Page 

The Princess of Manoa ------ 1 

The Well of Last Resource 12 

A King's Ransom -------20 

The Story of the Eight Islands - - - - 32 

The Forest of Haina Kolo - - - - - 40 

The Magic Arrow -------49 

The Island of Demons - - - - - - 61 

The Maid of the Twilight 70 

The Culprit Star 79 



"6 



V 



List of Illustrations 

Page 

" She tripped on over the springy grass, singing in a voice that 
sounded at times like the sweetest whisper of the wind, 
and agaan like the gentle patter of raindrops." Frontiapxeco ^ 

"A swift flight in the cloud-chariot of Hine, spirit of the 

rain-clouds." opp. 4 

"Stretching out his arms with his palms turned upwards, he 

prayed to the Great Spirit." ----- Opp. 16 

"This alone I offer, without canoe, or spear, or treasure of any 

kind." Opp. 28 

"On and on it sped, without sail or paddle, the prow always 

to the north." Opp. 36 

"Then two fishermen of the queen suddenly came upon 
the child in the fern-lined nest. . . . *This is strange fish 
to come out of the sea. ' " - - - - - Opp. 44 

"Hiku bounded to the edge of a cliff overhanging the valley, 

and peered eagerly over the brink." - - - Opp. 52 

"In the morning the misty outline of Lanai lay leagues to 
the east, . . . the wind had blown them past the island 
and out to sea." ------- Opp. 64 

"The pool looked dark and treacherous, but calling to the gods 

to help him, he leaped to the slimy bottom." - Opp. 76 

" Half-strai^led with deadly vapor, panting with fear, they ran, a 

sinuous stream of living fire sweeping after them." - Opp. 80 




Vll 



The Princess of Manoa 



C.-r^ ;> -rf C -C'- --. •^. 




^F ALL the little valleys that cut 
into the mountain range of old 
Oahu on its southern slope, that 
of Manoa is the most beautiful. 
It cleaves the very heart of the hills 
where the peaks are highest, — 
where they are so high ttiat the 
white clouds slip down over their 
heads and look, for all the world, 
like the white ruffled cap of an 
old-fashioned grandmother. It is always cool and 
fresh, for the wind, tempered in the shadows of 
the cliffs, sings through a pass in the mountains, 
and, catching the clouds at rest, whirls them 
away out to sea, dropping rain in sudden showers 
on the valley. 

It was at the head of this valley that long ages 
ago Hine, spirit of the rain-clouds, and Kani, her 
husband, who was god of the winds, came to live. 
They had one child, Kaha, a young maid whom 
all the gods loved, and whom the great and pow- 
erful god of the sea had asked for, to be the wife 
of his son, Kauhi, prince of the sea. But Kaha 
was only a happy sprite who cared not the least 
for Kauhi, but who loved best of all a swift flight 
in the cloud-chariot of Hine, when, driven by the 
winds of Kani, it skimmed over the shining g^een 
earth and far out above the blue ocean. It was 
such fun to spy out-the little grass huts of the 
earth-folk, and pour down swift gusts of rain, just 
to see the people scurry to shelter. 



The Princess of Manoa 



4*-r« -w JTrC -;?• -5- •^>- 



One day, however, scudding so low that the 
clouds almost caught the tree tops, they met a 
breeze just in from the sea, and stopped a moment 
above a group of young earth-folk w^ho were drag- 
ging their sleds up a long, smooth, grassy hill, and 
making the walls of the valley ring with their 
laughter. 

"Oh, wait, mother, wait! I must see what 
they are going to do ! " she begged 

"Not now, dear, we will spoil their sport if 
we stay. See, their sleds are wet already." 

As they passed on, a wild shout came up to 
them from below, and the little air princess, look- 
ing back wistfully, saw the whole merry company 
speeding, with the swiftness of the wind itself; 
down the slope in the bright sunshine; and for the 
first time she felt that she was — well, she did not 
know exactly what, it was so new a sensation, but 
somewhere inside of her there was a queer place 
that felt like a hole. 

Many times after that she caught distant 
glimpses of them, but one day she pleaded so hard 
that Hine stopped her chariot above the hill where 
the earth-people were eagerly discussing the fine 
points of the young chief's new sled. Down 
poured the rain, quenching their laughter and 
drenching their sleds, while their brown shoulders 
shone in the wet like polished bronze. 

What happened next made the air-child know 
that there was something within her that had 
never been there before, for the young chief, 



The Princess of Manoa 



throwing back his fine head until his eyes looked 
straight up into Kaha's — though that he did not 
know— shook his clenched fist at the cloud; and 
then, startled at his own daring, turned and sped 
to cover after his companions. Poor little Kaha! 
She had just been thinking how much finer he 
looked than Kauhi who wanted to marry her 
some day. 

Back in her home on the high mountain peak, 
there was still something so odd about Kaha's eyes 
that the air-people asked what had happened 
Hine knew, and wisely said nothing; but she took 
Kaha and retired to the other side of the great 
mountain, and for a long time the little valley of 
Manoa parched in the hot tropical sun, and the 
waterfells, that had always been so noisy and rol- 
licking as they leaped from the rocks, shrank to 
tiny streams and almost dried up. The air was 
so still that not a leaf in all the valley stirred; the 
heat rose in blue crinkles even to the tops of the 
cocoanut trees, and the earth-folk went about 
slowly with heavy eyes and parted lips. 

But the other side of the great peaks was dark 
and dreary. Kaha missed the sunshine; she shiv- 
ered in the damp mountain shadows and grew 
listless and sad. The air-folk gathered together 
and told their wildest tales to amuse her; but 
though she tried hard to please them, her pitiful 
little mouth would droop instead of smile. Some- 
times she did not even hear them— so intently was 
she listening for some sound from the valley. 



The Princess of Manda 






Then one day a wonderful thing happened! 
She was sitting on a high rock looking longingly 
down into Manoa when a great cloud, dense and 
dark, gathered about her, shutting her in alone, 
and blotting out the sky, the mountains, the valley. 
She thought she heard sobs and a low moan that 
sounded like a farewell, and she called out, but 
her own voice was deadened by the thick mist. 
Presently the cloud moved, she felt herself lifted 
from her seat, and gently borne down, down, until 
her feet touched the earth. 

Wonder of wonders ! She stood a little brown 
earth-maid with scarlet flowers in her long black 
hair. Her dress was of the finest and softest tapa ; 
around her waist was a girdle woven of the tiniest 
iridescent shells; while clasping her neck and 
smooth arms were many strands of the same bril- 
liant gems of the sea 

She stood a long time, dazed, for the earth 
looked so different now that she was really on it. 
The trees were taller than she had thought, and 
the grass softer. She took a few steps ; a delicious 
new sense thrilled up through her little bare feet 
and filled her— why, what was this she almost 
felt now for the first time? — something within her 
that seemed to hold more joy than she ever had 
known before. 

So she tripped on over the springy grass sing- 
ing a song quite new to her, singing in a voice 
that sounded at times like the sweetest whisper of 
the wind, and again Uke the gentle patter of rain- 





" A swift flight in 
the cloud-chariot of Hine, 
spirit of the rain- 
clouds." 



The Princess of Manoa 



^r^'C^^C^ ;r^C •;?•-:;• •2^' 



drops, until she found herself close to the very 
group of young earth-folk she had so often 
watched from above. 

Startled, they all gazed at her in silence— the 
sons and daughters of the lesser chiefs — because 
they did not dare to approach, unbidden, one whose 
dress and ornaments proclaimed her of the most 
exalted rank. 

But Mahana, son of their great chief of chiefs, 
he who had dared to shake his hand threaten- 
ingly at Hine's chariot,— why did he not speak? 
Mahana stood bewitched. He had never seen 
any one so beautiful, and his heart pounded so at 
the roots of his tongue that he could not speak. 

And Kaha, looking shyly at Mahana, thought, 
"Yes, he is braver and more beautiful than Kauhi, 
son of the sea-god" 

At last, the young chief remembered his 
manners, and bowing low before her, said: — 

"Shame on my father's people that we treat 
a stranger so discourteously. Will you not join 
us? If you have come from the other side where 
the mountains are like walls of rock, you have 
never known the pleasures of our hillsides. What 
shall we caU you?" 

"I am Kaha, and I come from — there," point- 
ing to the mountains. *'May I go, too? I have 
always wanted to, but—" and then she stopped, 
afraid that if she told them that she did not truly 
have a beautiful, brown, satiny skin Hke theirs, 
they might not like her; and their bright, laughing 



The Princess of Manoa 



C*-4?-^* -T^ ^^' -5- O- 



black eyes and red lips seemed to her most desir- 
able. 

Mahana swung his long sled of polished wood 
in front of her, and said, almost breathlessly, for he 
was still somewhat confused: 

"You have come a long way. My sled shall 
carry you to the top." But Kaha, laughing, v/sls 
half-way up the hill before he could overtake her, 
and they walked on shyly together, eager ques- 
tions burning on Mahana' s tongue, but on his lips 
only words of courteous hospitality. 

When it came to seating herself on the sled, 
Kaha was a little awkward at first, but that was 
not surprising, and no one seemed to notice. 
When all were ready Mahana gave his sled a 
sudden push and sprang on behind her. Down 
they sped over the shining grass, faster and faster, 
until the blood fairly tingled in her veins, and her 
long black hair whipped across the lad's brown 
shoulders. 

The young chief's sled went faster and farther 
than any of the others. It was far beyond the foot 
of the hill when he skilfully turned it into the 
shade of a wide-spreading tree. Kaha's cheeks 
glowed like crimson roses under a creamy-brown 
veil, and her eyes shone with glinting lights that 
danced in rhythm to her rippling voice, while they 
sat a moment to breathe before the upward climb. 
Again and again they flew, breathless, down the 
long hill; again and again they climbed it to the 
music of happy laughter. 



The Princess of Manoa 



4*'m« V* ^rC •;?• -5' *>• 



Once Kaha heard her fether's whisper in the 
wind that stung her face; at another time she 
looked up and threw a kiss to a cloud sailing slowly 
overhead; but she did not want it to come for her, — 
not yet. 

"Once more we will ride our sleds," Mahana 
said at last, "then we will return to the feast at 
my father's house." But he whispered in Kaha's 
ear, "You will come, too, Kaha, and later, when 
your people come for you, my father will treat 
with them, and you shall stay; for a chief's son 
must marry, as you know, and I would rather 
have you for my wife than any one I have ever 
seen." 

"If they will not, what then?" and Kaha's 
eyes laughed teasingly. 

"Then we shall fight," said Mahana, his flash- 
ing eyes, his broad chest and his straight limbs 
burnished brown in the sunshine, making him 
quite as fine to look at as any god could possibly be. 

Down the hill they flew again, but this time 
Mahana gave the sled such a vigorous push that 
it sped away out across the plain and down another 
hill before it stopped out of sight of all the company. 
Kaha tried to rise but could not; her knees shook 
and she was afraid, for now she knew she must 
confess — and go. Fear was a new sensation to 
her, and showed how very nearly like a mortal she 
was growing. She sat still on the sled until Ma- 
hana leaned over, and taking her by the hands, 
raised her to her feet and kissed her. 



The Princess of Manoa 






Then the little maid knew what had happened 
to her; that the air- spirit in her borrowed body had 
become a mortal soul, and that she could never go 
back to the clouds again. A splash of rain fell on 
the hand Mahana still held, and she looked up to 
the clouds rolling heavily overhead Soon great 
drops were falling swiftly but gently all about them, 
while the wind moaned, with a new note of sadness, 
through the long grass. But Kaha was a spirit no 
longer, and she let Mahana take her in his arms 
while she told him, as well as she could for the 
sobs that choked her, who she was and how she 
had come to him. 

When she had finished, Mahana raised his 
face to the sky, and stretching out his arms with 
his palms turned upwards, chanted a vow to the 
gods for their great gift. 

When he led Kaha before his father and the 
nobles of the court, there was a new dignity and 
stateliness in the boyish figure. He stood a 
moment, searching in his mind for the right words 
with which to present the girl. Kaha, though very 
shy and rosy, was quite self-possessed again, and 
wonderfully beautiful, so beautiful that before Ma- 
hana spoke she had won for herself the favor he 
would beg. 

"As you commanded, my father, I have 
chosen my bride. I give her to you until the time 
is right for our marriage." And the great chief 
answered: "You have chosen well." 

So Kaha went to live in the big house that 

8 



The Princess of Manoa 



V^'m-*-^-* ^T^ ^^* -2^» •>• 



was so beautifully woven of grasses. At first she 
was the great chief's beloved daughter, and the 
daughters of the lesser chiefs were her maids of 
honor and companions. Soon she knew all the 
brave deeds of the great warriors, and wove them 
into such sweet melodies that the people came from 
the mountainsides and up from the seashore to lis- 
ten to her wonderful songs. She learned to swim 
in the deep pools under the waterfalls at the head 
of the valley; she could dive from the highest rocks 
into the dark water, and come up on the farthest 
side, laughing and shaking her thick hair from her 
eyes. 

She knew where to find the fine maile, and 
how to twist it into fragrant leis; and every day 
she wove the brightest flowers into garlands for 
the great chief and Mahana. 

At first, when they went down to the sea to 
watch the fisherman and to gather seaweed for 
the feasts, she kept well within the reef where the 
water was shallow and clear, for she remembered 
Kauhi, son of the sea-god, and feared his power; 
but as the dreamy days went by in security, her 
other life slipped into the dim past, and she 2dmost 
forgot him. But always when it rained she bared 
her head to the drops, and always she turned her 
face into the wind to feel its caress on her cheeks. 

After a while she became Mahana' s wife. 
Then one day the great chief said that the time 
had come when Mahana should be made a chief in 
his own right; that he would give a feast that 



The Princess of Manoa 






should last a whole week, and that all the nobility 
of the island should attend, to honor the young 
chief and his bride. 

Kaha called her maids and went singing down 
to the sea to gather seaweed for the feast. The 
water was so clear and still that they could see 
every tiny shell and branch of coral, and they 
plunged in fearlessly. Farther and farther from 
the shore they wandered in the shallow water, 
picking only the finest and rarest of the sea plants, 
until they came to a break in the reef where the 
water was deep, and a channel opened out to the 
ocean. 

"I will swim across," Kaha said, "for the best 
of all are on the other side." 

She sprang into the channel, but had only 
taken a few strokes with her strong, young arms 
when the black fin of a shark cut the waves. It 
disappeared, and a moment later a white shadow 
shone in the blue depths ; then it sank out of sight 
again, — but Kaha, too, was gone. 

Terror-stricken, the women rushed up the 
valley. The men heard their cries and came out 
to meet them, and they turned back to show the 
place where Kaha had disappeared ; but when they 
came to the shore again they found her body on 
the sand. 

The wailing could be heard far beyond Leahi, 
and Mahana, beating his breast, cried aloud: "It 
was Kauhi, son of the sea-god, who did this deed!" 

And Mahana was right Always on the 

10 



The Princess of Manoa 






watch, Kauhi had seen her in the water, and, 
quickly taking the form of a shark, had caught 
her and carried her away, meaning to restore her 
to her own people of the air. But Kaha had 
become mortal, and he soon found that it was only 
the little drowned body of a Hawaiian girl that he 
held. Sorrowfully then he carried her back, near 
to the shore, and, when a long wave rolled in from 
the sea, he laid her on its crest, and sent her on 
to the yellow sand. 

Tenderly they took the little girl up and 
wrapped her in the finest tapa, and in the glisten- 
ing leaves of the ti plant, which, every one knows, 
all evil spirits fear more than anything else; and 
they laid her in a grave in the heart of the green 
valley she loved. 

For long years Mahana and his people 
mourned her; then, one by one, they, too, died; 
but Hine, spirit of tiie rain, and Kani, god of the 
winds, still weep and mourn about the spot where 
their daughter was buried 

And to this day when the rain splashes on the 
sleds of the children of Manoa, they look up and 
exclaim impatiently, — 

"Oh, there comes Hine with her tiresome 
tears 1" 



11 



The Well of Last Resource 



H^ N THE most ancient of times, 
^^1 when the eight islands themselves 
^^H were new, two children once sat 
I^B on a rock of the great dark moun- 
^^^ tain, almost on the edge of the 
precipice that drops sheer to the 
floor of the valley below. 

"Do you think, Mana, that 
our father will soon return?" 
asked the girL Her pretty lips 
drooped at the comers, and two big tears over- 
flowed her dark eyes. 

" He has been gone less than a moon yet, and 
war is long. Some of the warriors never return," 
answered the boy. His teeth closed till they 
ground together, and down the little girl's face the 
tears rolled thick and fast. 

"I think they want to kill us," she sobbed 
"I tried— I did try to beat the tapa right, but holes 
-would come in it ; I couldn't help it ! We never 
worked so in the days before our father went away. 
She— she snatched the stick out of my hands and 
hit me with it many times. My arms are bruised 
and sore, and my head aches." The child sobbed 
desolately. The boy sprang to his feet and strode to 
the edge of the precipice, turning his back toward 
his sister for the first time since the morning. 

"Mana!" she exclaimed "Again, today?" 
There were burning welts across his back, and she 
laid her cool hand on them. He turned quickly, 
his face lowering with shame and anger. 

12 



The Well of Last Resource 



"Yes, Umi is a man grown, and powerful, but 
I shall be a man some day, too!" his hands 
clenched threateningly. 

"They are fiends! they are devils— this sister 
of our father and her ugly son I They mean to kill 
us while he is away so that Umi will be the young 
chief of Waialua; then they will tell some smooth 
tale to account for our disappearance." 

A threatening voice called 

The girl sprang up trembling. " She will beat 
me again. She said she would if I did not finish 
the tapa before the sun slept, and I couldn't'" 

"Noe! " called the shriQ voice again, this time 
nearer. 

"Come," whispered Mana suddenly. "She 
shall not beat you again! The mountains are 
kinder than they. Come." Grasping his sister's 
hand he drew her into the shadow of the bushes 
where they crouched, scarcely breathing, till the 
woman passed; then aching, sore and desperate, 
they stole away down the farther slope of the 
mountain toward the pale star of evening. 

The next day the sun was sinking close to the 
edge of the world when the two runaways, tired 
and spent, dropped on the sand at the foot of 
LeahL Noe leaned her head against the warm 
rocks, tears creeping slowly from under her long 
lashes. 

"Don't, Noe," Mana begged gently. "We're 
tired and hungry, of course ; but many times it has 
been so with us since our father went over the sea, 

13 



The Well of Last Resource 



and we were beaten and tormented besides. Rest 
here in this shelter while I go down to the shore. 
There are fish in the pools among the coral; I can 
see them, and the limu beckons to us from the 
wet rocks. We shall eat before the night falls." 

Noe winked the tears from her eyes, and 
sprang up smiling. "Then I shall go, too," she 
said, "for many hands make a quick feast" 

Together they ran down to a cove in the rocks, 
where the waves ebbed and flowed over the dark, 
ragged coral, and the seaweed waved its juicy 
fronds in the shallow water. Soon Mana picked 
up a struggling fish on the point of his spear, and 
when, presently, it lay on the glowing coals of a 
fire, Noe returned with a net full of seaweed and 
tiny shell-fish. Since they left the mountain they 
had eaten nothing but a few half-ripe berries, and 
the white flakes of the steaming fish and the 
brown limu were more delicious than all the lux- 
uries of the king's feasts. 

On the white sand among the warm, dry rocks 
the children stretched their tired bodies in drowsy 
comfort, while across the darkening water the moon 
flung a path paved with broken chips of silver, and 
over it the stars beckoned to golden dreams. 

They were happy again, almost as happy as 
they had been before their father sailed away with 
the king to make war on another island, and left 
them to the care of his ambitious sister. By day 
they fished or raced over the white sand of the 
beach; at night they slept under the open sky. 

14 



The Well of Last Resource 



But one morning when the dawn waited just 
beyond the shadow of night, and the late moon cast 
a pallid light over the land, Mana suddenly awoke. 

On the beach stood Umi looking down at their 
fish-net spread to dry on the sand. On his evil 
face was a triumphant smile, and his long cruel 
fingers were spread in anticipation. 

Stealthily arousing his sister, they crept, 
crouching in the shadows of the rocks, up over the 
hill into the shelter of the forest where they lay 
concealed among the thick ferns and vines, creep- 
ing out only now and then to gather a few berries 
and wild fruits. 

When, however, day after day passed in peace 
they took courage again. The season of rains was 
near, and Mana built a cabin of dried grasses, 
while Noe gathered the long, shining leaves of the 
hala and wove them into mats for the beds. They 
planted a garden, and Mana set snares in the for- 
est for game. Months passed in security, and they 
began to laugh aloud again. 

One evening they sat before the door of their 
hut, Mana plajring sofdy on his bamboo flute, and 
Noe chanting low the song of their great ancestor, 
the rain-god. Slowly the sun sank into the ocean, 
and the star of evening shot a cold shaft of light 
through the warm afterglow. Mana laid down his 
flute and spoke. "In three days, my sister, we 
shall gather the roots of the taro. We shall be 
rich now, for the garden flourishes, and we have 
many mats and calabashes." 

15 



The Well of Last Resource 



"And better yet," answered his sister, "we 
work without bitterness." 

But that night they awoke with a fiendish 
laugh ringing in their ears, and the hot breath of 
flames scorching their faces. Stealing out of a lit- 
tle opening in the back of the hut they fled deeper 
into the forest Within the shadows of the big trees 
they turned and saw, in the glare of the burning 
thatch, the huge, distorted figure of Umi furiously 
laying waste the garden. In terror they ran 
through the woods, tripping among the tangled 
vines, falling over loose stones, panting, sobbing, 
no retreat seemed safe enough. 

For weeks they wandered, sick at heart, hun- 
gry, worn, now driven to the mountain heights by 
the taunts of their foe, now fleeing to the plains to 
escape the echoes of his jeering laugh as he fol- 
lowed. 

Then came the season of the great water- 
famine, when Hine called the clouds to the other 
side of the great dark mountain, and the ground of 
the plains opened ragged lips beseeching the blaz- 
ing sky for rain. Grass seered brown in the scorch- 
ing winds, and the leaves crisped and fell from the 
branches, till the naked rocks were exposed like 
gaunt bones through the rags of a beggar. 

At last Umi drove the children down the 
parched valley to where the mountains open out 
to the sea, and left them there to die. About them 
spread dry rolling hillocks sparsely covered with 
coarse grass and a few straggling berry bushes. 

16 




rti\C-.-',Co'i.K- 



" Stretching out his 

arms with his palms turned 

upwards, he prayed 

to the Great 

Spirit." 



^ 



The Well of Last Resource 



The sun beat on their iinsheltered heads, their lips 
dried and cracked with thirst; and in Noe's dark 
eyes there smoldered the fire of a consuming fever. 

"What is the use," she muttered dully, "of 
planting and weaving, of cutting and polishing cal- 
abashes, and beating the tapa, only to have them 
turn to ashes before our eyes? My head throbs 
and grows dizzy at the thought, and see how your 
hands, the hands of the son of a great chief, are 
worn with the heavy toil! " 

Mana sat on a sun-baked rock, his heart sore 
with bitterness, and Noe lay whispering to herself 
with her eyes closed. He changed his position so 
that his shadow fell across her face. 

"Noe," he whispered, bending anxiously over 
her, "little sister, what are you saying?" 

The dull voice only babbled on unmeaningly. 

"Noe! " the boy called, his voice sharp with a 
new fear, "wake up ! You are having a bad dream. 
Wake up!" 

Suddenly Noe opened her eyes glittering with 
fever and delirium. 

"Water!" she called hoarsely, "water, I tell 
you!" 

"But there is no water," Mana sobbed miser- 
ably. 

Noe beat her hands into the hot grass. 

Mana shook her, calling her name frantically, 
and she laid back again, muttering sofdy with her 
eyes closed. 

Frightened and desperate the boy sprang to his 

17 



The Well of Last Resource 



feet, facing the mountain where the gray draperies 
of the great rain-god lay on the dark peaks. 
Stretching out his arms with his palms turned up- 
wards, he prayed to the Great Spirit 

"Father of our fathers," he cried, "God of the 
blessed waters, turn your eyes toward the unhappy 
children of your children ! Send us the life-giving 
medicine, or my sister will die." 

High up in the mountains the clouds stirred, 
then gathered thick and dark over the pool at the 
foot of the waterfall Out of the mist rumbled the 
deep voice of the water-spirit, and the call awoke 
Moo, the great green lizard, from his long sleep in 
the earth. 

He stretched himself, and listened When the 
voice of the spirit ceased. Moo slipped into the pool, 
and burrowed under the spur of the mountain, 
down under the foothills, under the hot hillocks, 
and the dried stream-bed, through to the place 
where lay the sick child. With a lash of his pow- 
erful tail he broke open the rocks, and the water, 
following him through the newly made tunnel, 
gushed out crystal-clear, filling the stream full to 
overflowing. 

Mana, crouching with his face buried in his 
arms, heard the gurgle of the water and sprang to 
his feet. Deep and cool spread the pool before him, 
and on down through the parched fields rippled the 
little stream. And by and by where it ran new 
life sprang up. The straggling bushes burst into 
luxuriant bloom, and the berries grew luscious and 

18 



The Well of Last Resource 

sweet The soaring birds heard the splash of the 
water, and dropped on stilled wings to drink at the 
margin. 

And there the warrior-chief found his chil- 
dren. But hardly had the salt dried on his canoes 
ere they were launched again, this time to carry 
the wicked woman and her son into exile on the 
Island of Demons. But the spring still flows from 
the rocks, the WdH of Last Resource, to the peo- 
ple of the valley. 



19 



A King's Ransom 

SI 




f^^jj&SRBj HE KING stepped from his canoe 
^k-^CSBp to the beach, and his keen eyes, 
roving the sea, saw a dark head 
rising and falling with the waves 
far out from the shore. It was 
then but a speck on the broad blue 
ocean, but so swiftly it approached 
that he waited among his chiefs, 
watching and marveling at the 
force that lifted the sinewy body 
half its length out of the water at each stroke. 
Even then they saw that the man carried a long 
spear in one hand, or drove it before him across 
the smooth stretches between the waves. At last 
the swimmer rose to his feet in the shallow water 
and strode up the shore. He was naked, lean, and 
lithe; and his wet brown skin shone in the sun 
Hke polished koa There were wounds on his arms, 
and a deep ragged gash across his chest, but he 
stood erect in the royal presence, and when the 
king spoke he answered unafraid. 

"From Moku Ola, I come. A day and a night 
in the sea" 

"From Moku Ola! " exclaimed an old chief in 
surprise. 

"From the City of Refuge." 
" And who is the youth who comes thus boldly 
from Moku Ola to Waipio?" asked the king. 

"Kuala, am I, son of Laa who is dead through 
the treachery of his brother. Seven days ago the 
battle was fought, and when I sought my father 

20 



A King's Ransofn 



among the slain I found him with his dead arms 
locked about his living foe. Sons of one father 
were they, but the clasp of death was stronger 
than had been the living bond Then came the 
son of my father's brother, great of stature, and 
powerful, but with all his strength he could not 
undo the embrace. He called for help — " 

"And where was the son of the dead chief?" 
asked the king. 

" I stood beside them, looking on," The youth- 
ful face was grim and scomfuL 

"And then?" the king's eyes gleamed imder 
their heavy brows. 

"The day after the battle my father's brother, 
who was too weak from his many wounds to leave 
his couch, sent for me; but I was searching the 
battle-field and did not go. The next day he came 
to me, and offered me a part of my father's land, 
and a place in the household he had stolen." 

"And, boy, what did you answer?" asked the 
great warrior. 

"I have yet to answer," said Kualu. "At that 
moment I fouhd what I sought— my father's spear, 
and it grazed the cheek of our foe before I scarce 
knew it had been in my hand" 

"Go on," said the king with savage interest 

"His son sprang upon me, but my javelin was 
a stout one. I left him lying on the ground, and 
fled toward the sea with a half-score of their war- 
riors following me. It was a long chase, and they 
were net a dozen paces behind when I plunged 

21 



A King's Ransom 



into the sea, for I had lost much blood in the 
battle and was weak; but, even as they clutched 
at my feet, my fingers touched the sacred rock of 
the Island of Life, and I turned and laughed in 
their faces." 

"And what is your desire now?" asked the 
great chief of chiefs whose valiant heart warmed 
to the unconquered lad 

"A place in your service, O king. The reck- 
oning between them and me will come before I lay 
down my father's spear." 

And Kualu that day entered the service of the 
king. 

It was well known among the chiefs of 
Hawaii that the king looked with war-like eyes 
upon Maui, the island whose shores could be seen 
from Waipio when the waves of the channel rolled 
unbroken and the sun drank up the mists. But 
the time of the feast of Lono was near— the five 
days of the year which the gods claim as tribute 
from the months, and the preparations for the con- 
flict gave place tp the great festival. By day there 
were games of skill and tests of strength among 
the chiefs; music and dancing and feasting in the 
light of the candle-nut torches filled the long 
nights; and in the reckless time of the gods Kualu 
laid aside the memory of his wrongs. 

But, though the stalwart young chief had 
looked unflinchingly into the eyes of the great king, 
in the presence of the king's daughter the hot 
blood burned in his face, and his tongue clung to 

22 



A King's Ransom 



his teeth. As a chief of the royal household he 
saw her many times between the rising and the 
setting of the sun. When the women sang in the 
moonlight to the music of the ukeke he heard only 
the clear tones of her voice, and in the dark of the 
starless nights he knew the sound of her soft foot- 
fall on the rushes. She was a small maid, light as 
the down of the pulu fern, and as brown, and her 
dark eyes laughed at his confusion. But the days 
of the gods were days of greater freedom, and the 
handsome young chief found that after all the 
laugh was only in her eyes. 

On the first day of the new year, when the 
festival was ended, the king sent his runners over 
the island to demand a tribute of soldiers and 
canoes from the chiefs of the outer districts, and 
the preparations for war went on openly. 

"Kualu," said the little princess when they 
met in the moonlight by the spring of Waiamoa, 
"I have talked with Wahia, the Sorceress, and her 
words are that you will bring back from the war 
that which shall give you power over kings. We 
will pray the gods that she be a true prophet." 

"It is well," said the young chief eagerly, "fori 
have much to win before the king will listen to us." 

When, at last, the great fleet of canoes was 
launched, and the army sailed away, the winds 
were favorable, and the waves propitious. On the 
morning of the second day they landed near Lele, 
where the king of Maui and all his army awaited 
them. From the first the surge of battle was with 

23 



A King's Ransom 



the hosts of Hawaii, though fierce and stubborn 
the resistance; and the conflict raged over the hills 
till scarce a Maui warrior remained. One band 
alone held out, strongly entrenched behind a stone 
wall, and defiant as though possessed of some in- 
vincible power. 

Kuiu led the charge over the bulwark, and 
one by one the brave defenders fell, till, through 
the thinning guard, he caught the flash of an un- 
known weapon. Shouting with exultation, he 
hewed his way into the center of the tumult, and, 
with a swinging blow of his javelin, brought a 
strange, white-faced warrior to the ground. As 
the gleaming blade slipped from the inert hand 
Kualu seized it, and plunged it to the hilt in the 
earth; then, with his foot covering the handle, and 
his javelin dealing fearful blows about him, he stood 
his ground till the last of the Mauiians were dead, 
or had fled over the hills. If any save the young 
chief had seen the strange knife, he had not lived to 
tell it; and when the army of Hawaii returned to 
Waipio, the strange weapon was hidden in a 
bundle of captured spears, and on the tapa cover- 
ing was the tabu mark of the chief Kualu. 

In secret he carried it to the cabin of the old 
seer. "I need your counsel," he said to her in a 
whisper. "Know you, mother, what I have in 
this tapa?" He unrolled the covering. 

"Auwei!" she said softly. "It is the iron 
knife! But a little while ago a white-faced 
stranger came to the shores of Maui in a canoe of 

24 



A King's Ransom 



an unknown shape, and in his hand he carried a 
knife, the like of which was never seen on all the 
eight islands: harder than the hardest rock, sharper 
than the sharpest bone, but thin and bending as the 
lance of a palm leaf, and with the fire of the noon- 
day sun leaping from haft to tip. They thought he 
was the white god of whom the prophets spoke, but 
— he died, you say, like any man? The gods have 
befriended you, Kualu. Leave the knife with me. 
It is safe here, and there are many who would 
covet it. The time of its power is not yet" 

While the army still reveled in the glory of 
victory, the king prepared to strike a blow for still 
greater power; and from shore to shore, from 
mountain peak to mountain peak, there sounded 
the call to arms. By land and by sea the chiefs 
came with their bands of warriors, till the hills of 
Hainakolo were covered with camps, and the war 
canoes lay on the beach from where the first 
morning light strikes the sand to the last rock 
burnished by the setting sun. Kualu' s kinsmen, 
both father and son, came by sea with a hundred 
warriors; but Kualu bore himself with cold pride, 
and the feud was buried before the king. 

But one day when the little princess met her 
lover at the spring, her eyes were full of tears, and 
she sobbed as she said to him: "Your kinsman 
urges me to marry Olapana, his son. He is the 
most powerful noble on the island and has many 
warriors, and my mother looks upon him with 
fevor. What shall we do?" 

25 



A King's Ransom 



Kualu's brows lowered ominously, and he 
struck his clenched hand on the rock. 

"Yet Wahia hides the iron knife and counsels 
us to wait! " he cried passionately. "I am tired of 
waiting ! I have but to lift my hand and a score or 
more of his warriors will come to me ; then, with 
the iron knife—" 

" Hush ! " said the maid, looking fearfully about 
"Wahia says it is a thing of evil. It invites dis- 
aster. Also, she says, this war will make great 
changes; some stars will rise and some will set 
Yours is still behind the clouds of the horizon, my 
chief, but not for long is it to be hidden, Wahia 
says." 

But, though the powerful chief pleaded and 
the queen urged, the king was too intent on his 
own ambition to consider the marriage of a maid 

Never before had such an army put out from 
any island shore ; never before had an island 'war- 
song rolled from so many throats. The wind 
brought the sound back over leagues of ocean, and 
the sea-birds flew to the mountains, screaming with 
alarm. On the morning when the dawn showed 
the blue hills of Kauai before them, the king stood 
on the deck of the royal canoe and saw his fleet 
spread out over the channel like the wings of a bird 
so great that, from tip to tip, it measured the width 
of the island. 

Kauai lay on the still, blue sea like an en- 
chanted land. Along the shore no canoe broke the 
placid ripple of the waves; as far as eye could see, 

26 



A King's Ransom 



neither man nor beast moved on the shore; among 
the hiUs no spear caught the flash of the rising 
sun. All night the strange stillness brooded, but at 
break of day ten thousand spearsmen poured out of 
the hills, like a flood through a broken dam, and 
the impact of the hosts was like the charge of 
stormy billows on a rocky shore. The air was torn 
with shouts and cries, with the sound of clashing 
spears and whirling javelins, and the panting 
breath of desperate struggle. 

Suddenly another great army rounded the 
point by sea to attack and destroy the canoes, and 
the king sent Kualu to the rescue with a band of 
picked fighters. They sprang to the boats, and as 
they cast them off", fleet met fleet with a crash. 
Men fought on the decks and in the water; foes 
clenched on the bed of the ocean, and drowned, or 
rose to the surface to be beaten under again with 
paddles; spears and javelins shrieked through the 
air, till at last Kualu and a score or so of warriors 
looked at one another across a splintered fleet. 

"To the king! To the king! " called the young 
chief; but on the land the battle was lost. The 
slain lay under the blistering sun, and not one man 
of all the invading host held out against the defend- 
ers. The little band stood aghast before the ruin, 
until discovered by the foe; only half of the score 
escaped. For many days they skirted the coast, 
trying to learn the fate of the king. At night they 
landed and crept to the outskirts of the villages, 
and in the frequent skirmishes five of their 

27 



A King's Ransom 



number were lost. At last they fled before the 
chase of a dozen canoes, and two more warriors 
fell under the waves. 

Weakened by painful wounds, starved and 
exhausted, they turned toward Hawaii, and after 
many weary days reached the island. Though 
watchers stood on the shore as they drew near, 
when they IsfcfKied the beach was deserted Every- 
where Kualu found only averted faces. He spoke 
to the guard before the palace, and the man turned 
and walked to the other side. He called to a child 
who had loved him; it ran to its mother, and she 
covered the little face with her hand. Bewildered 
and angry, he strode up the valley to the cabin of 
Wahia 

" What is it ?" he demanded fiercely. " What 
evil has worked against me?" The old woman looked 
in his scarred face ; she lifted his cut and bruised 
hands, and turned his broad back to the light 

"The chief Kualu bears not the marks of a 
coward," she said, "though Olopana returned from 
the war full seven days ago, and told that you had 
deserted the king and escaped with all the canoes." 

Kualu stared in angry amazement at the old 
woman. He tried to speak, but his throat was 
choked with fiiry. 

"But Kalaunui is not dead," Wahia went on. 
"Only this morning a wounded spearman returned 
alone in a broken canoe. He died on the shore, 
but not before he whispered that the king was a 
prisoner." 

28 




" This alone I offer, 

without canoe, or spear, or 

treasure of any 

kind." 



A King's Ransom 



With all the old hate stirring in his heart, 
Kualu returned to the palace. As he crossed the 
courtyard he passed Olopana and the little prince. 
They were talking with an old warrior, and near 
them sat the women of the queen's household; 
and all but the little lad looked another way. 

"Turn your young eyes from the sight of a 
coward, my prince," Olopana said in a loud voice. 

The red blood died out of Kualu's face; he 
turned slowly and walked back to them. No 
sound came from his rigid lips, but he took the 
spear from the hand of the old man, and, step- 
ping back a pace, pointed to the weapon in his 
kinsman's hand Olopana saw the vengeance in 
his eyes, and his spear flew wildly, but Kualu 
waited the space of a dozen breaths, then with a 
fririous blow he buried the spear with the insult in 
the heart of the slanderer. 

The days that followed were days of deep 
humiliation. Taunts showered about him — taunts 
that he resented till his heart was sick with the 
unending strife. 

Then one night Wahia brought the iron knife. 
"The time is come now," she said "You must 
go to Kauai and bring back the king." 

"I bring back the king!" he exclaimed bit- 
terly. " You mock me ! I could not gather twenty 
men to my standard!" 

"You have what is more powerful than an 
army: the iron knife. It is a king's ransom, boy. 
Take but five men who have proved their feith; be 

29 



■m 



A King's Ransom 



cunning and wise, and you will return to marry the 
princess, and to hold the highest place in the 
council of the king." 

When the canoe with the six young chiefs 
sailed away from the shore of Waipio, no one but 
an old woman, and a maid who watched from the 
shelter of the forest, knew of the treasure that lay 
wrapped in many folds of tapa in the boat of the 
disgraced chief, or that he was gone to seek the 
king. 

Then the gods gave their favors freely. Fresh 
breezes filled the sails by day, and at night the 
canoes rocked in safety on the gentle swells of the 
peaceful ocean. As they approached Kauai they 
raised on a spear the emblem of an envoy; and 
when they landed, the king of the island, sur- 
rounded by his chiefs of council, received them at 
once. Kualu announced their mission boldly. 

"Victorious king," he said, "we of Hawaii 
know that our sovereign lives a prisoner on your 
island." The king gravely bowed. "And we have 
come to offer canoes and spears, to the number you 
ask, in exchange for his freedom." 

" We have more canoes than can find refuge on 
our shores when the storms sweep the sea," replied 
the great king with stately courtesy, "and the 
spears lie in uncounted thousands in the courtyard." 

"And many of them w^e should know were 
we to see them," said Kualu sadly. 

The next day the six chiefs of Hawaii again 
asked an audience of the royal council, and added 

30 



A King's Ransom 



twenty feather cloaks of priceless value to the offer 
for the king's ransom ; and again they were court- 
eously refused. The next day still other treasures 
were tendered, equally in vain. 

Then Kualu raised his right hand, and they 
knew that he had a matter of grave and secret 
importance to communicate. The attendants fell 
back, and the King of Kauai and his chiefs each 
lifted the right hand in token of good faith. Kualu 
took from under his cloak a long slender roll of 
tapa and laid it at the feet of the sovereign. Look- 
ing keenly about the circle of august faces, he 
stooped and opened the roll, and the long, thin 
steel blade lay naked in the sunlight, like a flash 
of lightning snared. 

"This alone I offer," he said, "without canoe, 
or spear, or treasure of any kind." 

"Auwe-e-e! " breathed the council of old nobles. 

"The iron knife!" whispered the king in awe. 

"The knife of the white god. Will it buy our 
sovereign's freedom? " 

"The king of Hawaii is free," replied the 
stately old savage. 



31 



■• ^7?T5(^-, 



■■^m 



The Story of the Eight Islands 




NCE upon a time, many ages ago, 
that portion of the earth*s surface 
where the blue waves of the 
Pacific Ocean surge, beating back 
and forth from the Golden Gate to 
the land of the Great Dragon, was 
a desolate waste of arid country, 
where no green thing grew, and 
where no bird or beast of any kind 
had ever been tempted to build a 
nest or make a lair. 

It was a region of dreadful mountains tower- 
ing into the sky, and of hot, sandy valleys be- 
tween,— at least, so some folk say. They ought 
to know, too, for they are the people who now live 
on the islands that, in that long ago age, were the 
tops of the very highest peaks in the middle of 
that fearful country. 

An old man who lives in a grass hut on the 
slope of one of those mountains, up where the 
mists trail through the tree tops, and the rainbows 
are forever pointing out treasures of potted gold 
that nobody ever finds, knows all about it; and for 
the proof of the truth of this strange tale of his — 
why, there are the mountains and there is the blue 
rolling sea! 

Away off to the south, the old man says, 
where the sky comes down to meet the ocean, 
was another land where the mountains were giant 
furnaces of white-hot fire; though waving palms 
fringed the shores and the hillsides were covered 

32 



The Story of the Eight Islands 



with a glowing carpet of flowers. It was where 
the gods lived when they were not busy interfering 
with the affairs of ordinary people. 

At that time Pele, spirit of fire, was the most 
beautiful of all the goddesses. Her hair was long 
and dusky as the cloud of black smoke that poured 
from the throat of the great mountain; her face 
was like the flakes of white ash that floated away 
through the air, glowing rosily in the light of the 
fire; her eyes were black as the shining lava 
where it cooled on the edge of the pit The great 
Kane was her father, her mother was a sea nymph, 
and though she lived in the heart of the mountains, 
every day she went down to the shore to talk with 
her mother. 

It happened one day when there was great 
commotion out in the world of mortals, and the 
gods and goddesses were being so constantly in- 
voked that it did not pay to return between times 
to their own abode, tiiat Pele wandered alone by 
the sea It was a golden morning; the night haze 
still lay far out on the water, where the blue of the 
sea melted into the blue of the sky, and the 
shadows of the cocoa palms were long on the yel- 
low sands. 

Suddenly a fleet of canoes broke through the 
mists, cutting the dancing waves with their thin, 
graceful prows, and sending the spray in white 
showers from the points of their sweeping outrig- 
gers. On they came, skimming the water like sea- 
birds, paddles flashing in the sun, and a sheen of 

33 



The Story of the Eight Islands 



golden brown bodies swaying rhythmically. Three- 
score and one canoes in all, spread out like a flock 
of wild fowl in migrating order; and the one that 
led was large and strong and beautiful. 

Pele retreated to the shelter of a rocky cavern 
overgrown with ferns and creeping vines, and 
watched them breathlessly, waiting the tragedy of 
the reef that no mortal had ever yet survived. 

Then up rose a figure in the prow of the fore- 
most canoe. From under a shading hand bold 
eyes searched the coast, found the hidden channel, 
and the fleet shot through the spindrift and spume 
of the angry breakers, into the quieter waters 
within the reef. Straight and tall stood the young 
chief, the white foam of the fawning surf purring 
along the sides of the canoe. On his head was a 
helmet of yellow feathers, and from his shoulders 
hung a sweeping cloak of the same golden plumage. 

With strong, swift strokes of their paddles the 
warriors sent the canoes crunching through the 
shells on the sand, and beached the fleet high out 
of reach of the waves. Then the chief threw his 
great spear, and where it struck and stood upright 
quivering in the ground, there the guard of honor 
spread the royal mats. A score or more of war- 
riors began immediately to build the royal lodge of 
the long fronds of the palm trees woven together ; 
another score set about preparing the morning 
feast, and a third was picketed about the camp 
with spear and shield ready to repel a foe, if foe 
should come. 

34 



The Story of the Eight Islands 



At last the young chief turned and saw Pele 
standing in the shadow of the rocks, a strange light 
in her great somber eyes. In a moment he was 
kneeling at her feet, and Pele saw that he was 
beautiful as well as strong and brave. She had 
never seen any one like this bold young chief with 
the eager eyes and handsome face. For a moment 
she paused, fascinated; then she turned and fled 
swiftly up the mountain, Malia following her. 

Day after day Malia disappeared from the 
camp for hours at a time, and so successftilly did 
he woo the beautiful goddess of fire, w^ho appeared 
to him but a simple maid, that she always met 
him in the cool, green depths of the forest shade. 
Together they wandered, gathering strange, beau- 
tifiil flowers or sat on the rocks, Malia recounting 
his conquests, his long journeys over the vast 
ocean ; telling of the strange peoples he had warred 
with, and the treasures he had captured and car- 
ried away, while Pele listened with inscrutable eyes. 

For a long time Malia and his band made 
their camp on the shore, but at length the soldiers 
grew restless; adventurers all, they had set out 
for conquest and wealth, and here there was 
neither gold nor a people to conquer. 

Then Kekaha, a goddess whose jealousy of 
the beautiful Pele made her wicked, took the form 
of an Amazon, and mingling with the warriors, 
told them of a wonderful country far to the north, 
where the gold lay under the open sky, and prom- 
ised to lead them there. 

35 



■■"^■5K:''m- 



The Story of the Eight Islands 



Malia was loath to leave Pele, but the counsel 
of the lesser chiefs at last prevailed, for one morn- 
ing when Pele had waited at their trysting-place 
and he did not come, she wandered on down 
through the forest, watching and listening. When 
at last she reached the place where the camp had 
been, she saw the shore strewn with the disorder 
of a hasty flight; but the whole fleet of canoes had 
passed beyond the horizon. 

Pele sank on the sand, and the wind lifting 
her long black hair, covered her with it as with a 
mourning veil. For a long time she sat there 
unheeding; the fires in the mountains smoldered 
to a dull glow and almost died out, and still she sat 
unmoving. Then in the darkness of the night her 
mother came up out of the sea and spoke to her. 

"Go, my daughter," she said, "and light a 
torch at the fire in the great mountain, there is 
still a spark left. W^ith it search along the coast 
for a canoe. One of the three-score I capsized, 
and when the men grew w^eak with the buffeting 
and sank to the bottom of the sea, I brought it 
back to you. Take it and set forth, and I will guide 
you; but keep the light burning." 

Pele arose and found the canoe. When she 
had fixed the torch in the bow and seated herself, 
a hugh wave rolled up the sand, and, receding, 
lifted the boat and carried it out to sea. On and 
on it sped without sail or paddle, the prow always 
to the north; on and on over the trackless sea, 
with never a sail in sight; on, until even the sea- 

36 




" On and on it sped, 

without sail or paddle, the 

prow always to 

the north." 



The Story of the Eight Islands 



birds were left behind. At last Pele saw a long 
black cloud hanging low on the horizon, and un- 
der it loomed the shores of a Dreadful Land Still 
the canoe sailed on; the cloud spread and shut out 
the sunshine, and the air grew thick and heavy. 
Poisonous vapors floated up from the land, and 
darkness—dense darkness— shut down over the 
whole region. 

"Alas," cried Pele, "my boat will be wrecked 
on the terrible rocks! I can go no further!" 
Crouching in the bottom of the canoe she covered 
her face with her hands, waiting the shock of the 
keel on the shore. 

When she looked up the land had disap- 
peared She sprang to her feet, raising the torch 
high above her head From the sky on the north 
to the sky on the south, from the east to the west, 
the sea rolled. The Dreadful Land lay fathoms 
deep, and only the tops of the highest mountains 
rose above the waves, eight rocky islands on the 
bosom of a mighty ocean. 

When the canoe grated on the shore of the 
island farthest to the north, Pele took the torch 
and climbed to the top. She touched the light to 
the rocks, and they burned with a flame that lit up 
every spur and crevice on the mountainside; but 
Malia was not there. She left the fire burning and 
embarked again, landing on the island next to the 
south, where she again lit a fire and searched for 
her lover, again in vain. From island to island she 
wandered, until all but one of the mountains were 

37 



The Story of the Eight Islands 



throwing fountains of fire high into the air. As 
the canoe touched the shore of the last island Pele 
saw a spear lying on the rocks. 

"Here will I find Malia," she cried, casting 
her boat adrift. Seizing the torch she sprang from 
crag to crag, calling in her clear, beautiful voice to 
her faithless lover. At last she found him, 
lying dead where the wicked Kekaha had deserted 
him. 

Long she mourned on the desolate mountain. 
Where the torch dropped from her hold it burned 
a great cavern in the rocks. There Pele made her 
home. Sometimes she slept, and then the fire died 
away until only a thin column of smoke floated up 
from the pit to mingle with the fleecy clouds; 
when she awoke the whole mountain shook with 
her restless muttering. She breathed on the 
smoldering coals, and fountains of red-hot lava 
shot into the air. Now and then she broke into 
raging fury, and swept the land with streams of 
liquid fire that shriveled every living thing in their 
paths. 

That was eons ago. One by one the volcanoes 
on the other islands died out; but to this day in 
the depths of Kilauea the fire still burns, and the 
lava surges hot and red. Long ago the fresh sea 
winds cleared the deadly air; the rain crumbled 
the rocks to soil. Then the waves of the ocean 
brought seeds from distant lands, and they took 
root and flourished; flowers opened to the smiling 
sky, and fruits ripened in the warm sunshine, until 

38 



The Story of the Eight Islands 



now those dreadful mountain peaks glow with the 
colors of jewels set in the blue enamel of the 
tropic sea. 



39 



The Forest of Haina Kolo 



pA B 



LONE on the lonely sea, in the 
wide, dark night, a canoe drifted 
As it rolled heavily on the sluggish 
swells, a plaintive chant, weighted 
with woe, rose and fell with the 
throbbing waves, and the voice 
was rich with the pathos of a long- 
past age: 

"Wide is the dark and dreary ocean, 
Long the night of unseen terrors, 
The night of dark and fearful terrors, 
The night of rain and driving storm ; 
The night that ends in blazing sunbeams, 
In flames that scorch the brazen sky; 
In light that bums the rolling waters, 
And strikes the waves to white-hot flames 
That blind the weary eyes. 
Broad is the arch of the fiery heavens, 
Slow the pace of the laggard sun ; 
But when, at last, it sinks to the ocean. 
It plunges under the darkening waves. 
And night, long, dreadful night, holds sway again." 

The wail died away in a low moan, and only 
the wash of the restless sea sounded through the 
empty night. 

"The long, long night," the plaint began again. 

"The cold night—" 

A child whimpered in the bottom of the canoe, 
and the woman drew it into her arms and wrapped 
the thick veil of her long, dusky hair around the 
little naked brown body. Again the lament floated 
over the dark water: 



40 



The Forest of Haina Kolo 



"Sleqj, son of the great chief, Loakalani, 
Son of the father who sailed from the gardens of 

Kauai, 
From the shady groves of the Garden Isle 
To the land of the burning mountains. 
He remembers not the daughter of the king, 
He has forgotten the son she bore him. 
Forgotten is Haina Kolo, the wife ; 
Forgotten is Lei Makani, the son." 

Heavy w^ith weariness, the woman drooped 
over the child and her eyes closed. The canoe 
rocked deeper on the rising* waves; it dipped to the 
water, and a dash of spray roused her again. She 
caught up the paddle, and turned the prow of the 
canoe toward a star hanging low over the sea. 

"Lost are the unmarked paths of the ocean j 
Lost is the road to Hawaii, 
To the land of the great chief, Loakalani, 
To the home of the man and father." 

The child had wailed fretfully when it slipped 
from the mother's arms, and she crooned it to sleep 
again. 

" Sleep, for the calabash is empty, 
And the water-gourd lies open and dry. 
Parched as the husks of a long-past feast." 

A tinge of gray brightened the line where the 
sea met the sky; the day was breaking. But sleep 
weighed heavily on the woman, and she swayed 
under the burden; the paddle dropped unheeded 
from her hand and floated away in the darkness. 
Still holding the child in a close embrace, she 
slipped to the bottom of the canoe, and her pain 

41 



The Forest of Haina Kolo 



was eased in dreamless slumber; the child slept in 
the warmth of the mother's body, and the canoe 
drifted aimlessly. 

One by one the stars gathered in their rays 
and hid in the depths of the blue; the shadows fled 
swiftly from the face of the ocean, and when the 
great red sun rose again over the world the canoe 
still rocked on the empty sea, as it had rocked for 
many long, burning days. The woman and the 
child slept on ; and the glory of the new day gilded 
the ocean and the dripping canoe with useless gold 
The freshening breeze lifted the cloud of dusky hair 
from the face of the woman, and she was beautiful 
—beautiful as the dawn, and still in the morning 
of slim, dainty youth. 

But while the sun was yet low, a great, dark 
storm-cloud rolled up from the place of unknown 
terrors at the back of the sky. The wind struck 
the water like the flat of a paddle, and the spray 
leaped high over the crouching waves. With a 
quick jerk the canoe dipped the water, then rolled 
back and dipped on the other side. The woman, 
suddenly aroused, dragged herself painfully to her 
knees. 

Already the storm-cloud spread over half the 
heavens, and the waves, white and broken, fled 
before the lash of the wind. She looked wildly 
around for her paddle, and the canoe, unguided, 
swung its length to the rush of the sea. 

The child screamed with fright The mother 
held it close in the hollow of her arm, waiting, for 

42 



The Forest of Haina Kolo 



beyond the race of waves towered a mountain of 
water, its thin edge barely frayed. She braced her- 
self and lay out over the outrigger; but her slender 
body was Hke the feather of a sea-bird, and the mer- 
ciless billow picked up the canoe in its giant's clutch, 
as though it were but a chip from the hewer's ax, 
and threw it face down, beating it into the water. 
When the wave passed on, the canoe lay like a 
log rolling helplessly in the trough of the sea 

The woman came to the surface, still clutch- 
ing her child, and struck out for the splintered hulL 
Through the long hours of the storm she clung to 
the slippery wreck, though again and again the sea 
tore it from her grasp. At last, toward the end of the 
day, an island loomed dimly through the driving 
spray, and she left the hull and swam toward the 
shore. Some time in the blackness of the night she 
felt the land under her feet; she dragged herself up 
the beach, gripping a little Hmp body in the hollow 
of her arm, and sank on the dry, warm sand. 

In the gray of the dawn she roused, but tl>e 
child lay as she had gathered it to her with the last 
of her spent strength. Sitting on the sand, she 
rocked it in her arms, crooning coaxingly with her 
warm lips on the little cold fece. By and by she 
staggered to her feet, gathered the long grass that 
grew in the crevices of the rocks above the beach, 
and made a nest for the little one. 

"It but sleeps," she said wistfully. "When I 
return with food it will wake." 



43 



The Forest of Haina Kolo 



Then came two fishermen of the queen who 
had caught nothing that day. 

"The fish-god is angry," said old Niiu. "He 
has called them all away." They cast their net 
again, and drew it in empty. 

"The queen will eat flesh or fowl this day," 
said the old man as they strode up the beach. 

There were footprints on the shore, small, 
slender molds that dragged at the toes as though 
the feet had been lifted in great weariness. They 
led up from the edge of the water to a place where 
some one had lain long and heavily in the sand. 
From there the prints were fresher, and the fish- 
ermen followed till they suddenly came upon the 
child in the green nest. As they gazed at it in 
astonishment it moved feebly. 

"This is a strange fish to come out of the sea," 
said Niiu. The tiny waif moaned, and he took it in 
his arms to warm it against his broad chest 
"Auwei!" he breathed softly in wonder, lifting a 
slender necklace from the little brown neck. "The 
child of a high chief! Fish or no fish, I must take 
it to the queen." 

When Haina Kolo, daughter of a king, dragged 
her stiffened limbs back to the beach, the fern-lined 
nest in the rocks was empty. She gazed into it 
stupified, but at last her face brightened and she 
laughed gently. 

* * Lei Makani ! ' * she called, and her voice was as 
sweet as the sound of the waters of Hulawo. She 

44 




"Then two fishermen of 

the queen suddenly came upon 

the child in the fern-lined 

neat, ... * This is strange 

fish to come out of 

the sea.'" 



The Forest of Haina Kolo 



peered among the rocks, but no laughing face 
greeted her, no shout of baby glee answered; she 
ran along the beach calling, "Lei Makani! Lei 
Makanil " coaxingly at times, then again her voice 
rose clear and loud as the sound of a battle-ax 
striking the Ringing Rocks. The winds answered, 
but the child who was named for them was beyond 
the call. 

Then for hours she crouched on the shore in 
the blazing sun, neither hearing nor seeing, till the 
tide crept up and lapped her feet. At the first touch 
of the water a wild, unreasoning horror leaped into 
her eyes; she sprang up and ran away from the sea, 
away from the sight of the rolling billows, away 
from the sound of the thundering surf, up into the 
heart of the mountain forest 

There she lived for many long years; and in 
the deep, cool, green shade the peace of the ever- 
lasting hills crept into her heart. 

But when the sound of the surf boomed 
through the hiUs in the early dawn, and a storm 
brooded on the ocean, a haunting memory stirred 
in her half-darkened mind; she would go swifdy 
down to the shore, and, running along the beach, 
would call, "Lei Makani! Lei Makani! " now softly, 
enticingly, now rousing the echoes with her clear 
sweet voice. 

"The mad woman calls the winds," the fish- 
ermen would say, and hasten to make ready for a 
gale. 

At last there came a season of fierce storms 

45 



The Forest of Haina Kolo 



from the south that raged over the land and sea. 
For many weeks the fishermen dared not venture 
on the water, and the taro patches were washed 
away in the floods, so that the people were hungry. 
It was in the time of the year when the sun hur- 
ries across the heavens, and the days are short. 
The clouds spread over the sky like a thick gray 
tapa without rent or seam, and the days were 
dreary and sunless. 

Then a strange, swift sickness fell on the island, 
and so many died, that from dawn to dark, and 
from dark to dawn, the wailing never ceased. It 
throbbed over the island from sea to sea, and min- 
gled the cries of woe with the shrieking winds. 

"It is the strange mad woman of the moun- 
tains," said the high priest to the queen. "She calls, 
and the sick wind blows from the south; then the 
souls of the afflicted are lured into it, as the feather 
of a sea-bird is caught in the gale and carried no 
one knows whither. She is possessed of an evil 
spirit, and the wailing will not pass from the island 
of Hawaii until her body lies on the altar of the 
gods." 

That same day the queen sent messengers 
through the mountains, searching for the mad 
woman. They found her sitting on the rushes 
before her cabin, quietly weaving, and on her face 
rested the peace of the great silent forest She 
folded away her mats and went with them will- 
ingly, for her sufferings had drained her heart of 
fear. 

46 



The Forest of Haina Kolo 



In the night the half-lulled storm rose again, and 
raged furiously. It tore the limbs from the trees 
and shrieked through the groves like the demons 
of Milu, and the surf rolled in endless thunder. 
From a hut in the temple courtyard a plaintive cry 
rose above the tempest : "Lei Makanil Lei Makani! " 

In the sleeping-house of the palace a young 
chief, who was called Olulo because he was found 
on the seashore, stirred uneasily on his mats. " Lei 
Makani! " came the call again, and he rose quickly 
and went out into the storm ; but the rain on his face 
woke him, and he wondered why he had left his 
bed. 

Then in the dark hut a sad, lonely chant rose 
and fell on the waves of the storm : 

" Lost is the son of Loakalani, 
And the mother, Haina Kolo, 
Daughter of the great Kailiula, 
Mourns in the land of strangers. 
Bereft is Haina Kolo, the mother. 
Forgotten is Haina Kolo, the wife, 
Doomed to death is Haina Kolo, the princess. 
The long, long night. The sad night — " 

When the morning dawned one of the g^ard 
went to the queen and told her what he had heard, 
and the queen sent quickly to the temple in great 
fear that it might be too late ; but the high priest 
himself brought Haina Kolo to the palace. 

" She is the wife of the chief of Waimanu who, 
these many years, has mourned for her," said the 
queen. "When he returned to Kauai after the 

47 



The Forest of Haina Kolo 



long war they told him that, fearing he would 
never return, she had gone in search of him; and 
he himself found her wrecked canoe on the shore 
of the Island of Demons." 

"Auwei! Then she is the lost princess of 
Kauai!" 

"But the son, where is he?" The queen and 
the priest looked at each other in startled wonder. 

"Send for old Niiu," said the priest "He has 
but lately returned to these shores after many 
years." 

And the old fisherman, when he saw the 
woman sitting in the house of the queen, said, "It 
is the mother of the child. I saw her searching 
among the rocks by the sea, but I had given the 
waif to the queen and could not take it back." 

The swiftest runner in all Hawaii, at the com- 
mand of the queen, threw off his tapa and sped 
away over the rain- washed plains; and in the 
blast of the storm the chief of Waimanu returned, 
pace by pace, with the fleet-footed messenger. 

When father and son, the one gray with the 
years that had passed, and the other grown to a 
stalwart youth, stood before her, Haina Kolo knew 
them both; and the haimting shadows passed from 
her mind as the mist clears from the hills in the 
rays of the rising sun. 

And the forest where for so many years she 
lived in lonely solitude is still called The Forest of 
Haina Kolo. 



48 



The Magic Arrow 




RE you sure, Hina, that the earth 
has not grown since the days of 
my father?" 

The woman sitting on the 
rush-strewn ground looked up 
from her weaving of dried grasses, 
and a smile dawned slowly in her 
great, somber eyes. 

"The space between the stone 
and the sandalwood tree is the 
same, my son," she answered. 

"But the trees are larger. I remember when this 
one was only a single branch out of the ground ; and 
you have often told me that when we came here 
to this forest, I was but a small child in your arms." 
"But the earth is past its youth, and the 
measure of its growth is backward." 

"Then tell me again," demanded the boy, 
throwing himself on the rushes beside his mother, 
"what manner of man was he who, standing on 
this stone, could throw a spear to yonder mark. 
Begin at the beginning, and tell me, how came he 
to the shores of this island?" 

Hina's thin brown fingers flew swifdy among 
the quivering strands, but the silence was unbrok- 
en for the space of a score of breaths, while the 
leaves whispered softly to a low-drifting cloud, and 
the sunshine glinted in the deep green tunnels of 
the forest. At last she spoke, and her voice, rich 
and low, filled and swelled the harmony of the 
bird-songs. 

49 



The Magic Arrow 



"From out of the golden dawn floated his 
canoe," she said, "a tiny speck, shot by the rays 
of the rising sun across the shimmering blue. So 
swifdy it came the fishermen forgot the fish strug- 
gling in the nets, and stood chest-deep in the sur^ 
waiting to see what being it was whose canoe cut 
the water like the fin of a spear-fish in chase. 
When the boat reached the rim of breakers on the 
reef it paused, then, obeying a mighty stroke of the 
paddle, leaped to the crest of a wave, and sped 
shoreward with the swiftness of an arrow sprung 
fi-om a warrior's bow. 

"And I—" interrupted the boy, "I have never 
seen a man save old Pakeo, who comes to our 
mountain to gather the brown floss of the tree- 
fern. But he is crooked and little, though he 
throws a swift spear. And then, mother Hina?" 

"And then, when they saw that the stranger 
bore the emblems of a high rank, they led him to 
the king, and the king received him as a noble guest 
Very soon he became a member of the royal house- 
hold, for he had great skill with the javelin and the 
long spear, and was wise in warfare." Hina 
paused, and the boy took up the tale eagerly. 

"And when the stranger had won the great 
joust before the king, he asked the high priest of 
the temple for his daughter. Mother, think you 
that the maids in the valley now are as beautiful as 
you are?" 

"As I, Hiku! The young girls are smooth- 
skinned, with black, shining hair, and—" 

50 



The Magic Arrow 



"But the birds with the black feathers are not 
so beautiful as the little manu that is soft gray and 
white ; and the black cloud is the cloud of storm 
and fierce lightning. I like not the black things of 
the forest. Now, tell me of the time when my 
father brought us up here into the mountains, be- 
fore the great battle on the plains." 

"It was after the fishermen had fled from the 
sea with the tale of the thousand war canoes ready 
to be launched from the shore of Lele, to descend 
on our coast. The king was calling in the chiefs 
and their warriors from the distant valleys of the 
island, and making ready a strong defense. Your 
father came, and taking you from my arms bade 
me follow him. High up in the mountains we 
climbed, into the depths of the forest. Here, as you 
see it now, was the house ready for our use; mats 
were spread for the bed, and food was stored 
enough for many weeks. Giving you back to my 
arms, he stepped to yonder stone and threw his 
spear. Across the open it whistled, like the shrill 
call of a bird, and buried its point in the trunk of 
the sandalwood. When he brought back the spear, 
he said, *My lance I leave to my son, and the 
mark on the tree for him to grow to. When he is 
strong and sure, and can plant the spear of his 
father in the heart of the scar, then, and not until 
then, must he leave the mountain and go down 
into the valley to learn the ways of men. Before 
he goes, give him the arrow that is fastened above 
the door, and if liis hands are free of the stains of 

51 



The Magic Arrow 



life-blood, it will show him the way and the task I 
leave him. I go to fight for his land and his king 
— and to return no more.' Then calling to the 
gods to protect us, he went quickly away through 
the forest." 

"And he was kiUed?" whispered the boy, his 
eyes wide and wistful though he knew well the 
tale. 

"He was seen fighting beside the king till the 
last foe was down ; but his body was not among 
the dead, nor stood he among the living. Some 
said he was of the race of the gods, and they had 
called him." 

The sad voice ceased, but in the woman's dark 
eyes there burned a fire that seemed the driving 
force of the flying fingers; the weaving grasses 
trembled in the still air, and the warm, damp fra- 
grance of the forest rose like incense to the noon- 
day sun. On the rush-strewn ground Hiku lay 
thinking of the unknown hero whose son he was, 
until his waking fancies flowed unbroken into the 
marvels of dreamland adventure. 

The mother turned to speak again ; but seeing 
him asleep, rose quietly and gathered her beautiful 
mats into a bundle. With another glance at the 
boy she slipped away through the trees, down the 
mountain on the further side, into the village of a 
people who knew her not, and traded the work of 
her busy hands for food. 

W^hen the boy awoke, the shadow of the san- 
dalwood lay twice the length of the stately trunk 

52 




" Hiku bounded to the 

edge of a cliff overhanging 

the valley, and peered 

eagerly over the 

brink." 



The Magic Arrow 



across the turf. He sprang to his feet, his eyes 
still alight with the fire of a dream-battle. 

"Hina! mother Hina!" he called softly. Only 
the woodland echo answered, and he stretched his 
lithe body, listening. In all the wide forest there 
was no human sound. The murmuring breeze, 
the rustle of growing things, the twitter of the birds 
but underscored the silence. 

Suddenly a laugh, clear and sweet though dis- 
tant, floated up through the still air. Hiku bounded 
to the edge of a cliff overhanging the valley, and, 
throwing himself at full length on the rocks, peered 
eagerly over the brink. His brows drew quickly 
together in an impatient frown, for, instead of a 
sunny green valley, he looked into a sea of fleecy 
vapor, through which the mountain tops rose to the 
clear, amber light of the waning day. Billows upon 
billows of tumbled whiteness covered the lowlands 
and sea, though the sound of laughing voices came 
up to the boy's ears, now clear, now muffled, as 
the clouds shifted in the freshening wind. So often 
Hiku had lain thus, listening and peering, but 
always the clouds or the thick underbrush baffled, 
and no one but old Pakeo had ever dared the 
mountain height, for the valley-folk believed it the 
abode of a sorceress. 

Hiku waited until the last sound died away; 
then he sprang to his feet and strode back to the 
hut, followed by the mocking cry of the birds. 

" 'T was a maid, ' t was a maid, ' t was a maid ! " 
they seemed to call after him, and he crashed 

53 



-^ 



The Magic Arrow 



through the brush, his pulses throbbing riotously. 
Never before had he heard young voices so near, 
and the hot blood tingled through his veins to his 
finger-tips. It was the call of youth to youth, and 
all the lad's powerful strength responded. He 
swxing across the clearing before the cabin, where 
Hina again sat at her weaving, and caught up the 
spear from the ground. 

For a moment he poised on the worn stone, 
his muscles slowly swelling and knotting under 
the brown, satiny skin. Then, swift as the dart of 
a scorpion's sting, his sinewy arm shot out, and 
recoiled, and the spear flew through the air, swift 
and true, into the very heart of the old scar. 

"Hina!" he shouted, "mother Hina! I have 
done it! See! See! The spear of my father again 
quivers in the trunk of the old tree! " 

The woman rose slowly to her feet, and stood 
uncertain — dazed. Unexpectedly she reached the 
goal that, she had thought, was still many turns 
in the maze of the future. She watched Hiku 
spring to the tree and tear out the spear; then she 
turned and brought him the magic arrow. 

"It is yours," she said. "But the night comes 
swiftly. Wait now the new day, then go down 
into the valley. When you reach the foot of the 
mountain, shoot the arrow from your bow and 
follow its flight. It will lead you; but fail not to 
return before the day is gone." 

In the early morning, as the sun came up out 
of the sea dripping showers of gold, Hiku left the 

54 



The Magic Arrow 



cabin and ran eagerly down the mountainside, 
springing from ledge to ledge, leaping the rifts in 
the rocks, down through the thick mist of clouds 
into the long-dreamed-of valley. 

He drew his bow and shot the arrow out into 
the unknown world before him. It fell in an open 
field where young men were practising with the 
javelin and the long spear. For a time he watched 
them curiously, then turned and fitted the arrow 
to his bow again. 

"These are but children," he thought, "I shall 
find men further on." 

At the second flight the arrow led him to a 
grove where men and women were drinking from 
a big bowl of awa. Some were reeling about sing- 
ing, others vrere quarreling, while a few lay in 
heavy, noisy slumber; but it all looked foolish to 
the untaught boy, and he passed on. 

For the third time he drew the tense string of 
the bow, and followed the slender barb. It led 
him through taro patches and gardens, past village 
huts, into the courtyard of the high chie^ where 
it dropped at the feet of a young girl. 

Laughingly she caught up the dart and hid it 
behind her as Hiku entered through the gateway. 

"How do I know it is yours?" she asked when 
he held out his hand; and her lips made the youth 
think of the ripe, red ohias in the mountains. 

"My own will come to me," he answered, and 
whistled softly. Instantly the arrow slipped from 
her fingers and fluttered to his shoulder. 

55 



The Magic Arrow 



"Auwei! " cried all the people in astonishment; 
and the old chief came out of his house at the sound 

"Who is this stranger?" he asked 

"Hina, the daughter of Neula, is my mother," 
Hiku answered for himself, "and I bring my fath- 
er's strong-bow to the service of the king." 

When Hiku entered into the new l5e, the old 
existence faded away to the dimness of a half-for- 
gotten dream. The primeval forest, the hut in the 
clearing, even the lonely, waiting woman, were 
veiled from his memory, even as the dark peak 
was hidden from the valley by the thick curtain of 
mist that banked against the mountainside. Each 
day held new wonders: the bountiful feasts, the 
sports where his great strength won him high 
honor among the young men; the music, the danc- 
ing, the singing and laughter and jest; but more 
than all, the beautiful, laughing eyes of Kawelu, 
the fairest daughter of the chief, — she at whose 
feet the arrow had fallen, — held him enthralled 

At last, in the darkness of the night, he awoke 
suddenly to find the magic arrow lying in his open 
hand With the touch came a quick, accusing 
thought of Hina, alone in the forest At once he 
arose and stole out of the sleeping village, and in 
the still dawn reached the hut. His mother sat on 
the rushes weaving, and he threw himself on his 
knees before her. 

"Give me your pardon, mother," he begged 
I thought I was a man, but I have forgotten like 
a child" 



(( 



56 



The Magic Arrow 



Hina stood up; taking his head between her 
hands she raised his feice to the light and read in 
his eyes the honest shame of his heart 

**Ah, Hiku," you are but a lad after all, though 
a good lad, for you repent wholly." 

"Then come with me, mother Hina. Return 
to the village where you are still remembered and 
loved" 

Hina glanced about the little clearing where 
every tree, every stone was so familiar that she 
read the hour of the day in the shadows, and Hiku 
saw, growing in her face, the dread of change. 
With heart throbbing to return to the human life of 
the village, he set himself patiently to the task of 
stealing, one by one, the fears and misgivings from 
her mind. When she took up her work again he 
stretched his long limbs beside her, and began the 
tale of his adventures in the valley. 

To the boy, the days on the mountain dragged 
almost intolerably, but he waited resolutely for the 
woman's slower mind to wake to the desire for old 
associations. 

But though the peace of the mountain lay 
unbroken, the village in the valley seethed with 
excitement The powerful young chief who had 
won the favor of the whole clan had mysteriously 
disappeared; and Kawelu, his promised wife, lay 
on her couch of mats with her face to the wall. 

When, at last, Hiku persuaded his mother to 
return with him to the valley, they found the vil- 
lage a place of sorrow. Kawelu lay dead in the 

57 



The Magic Arrow 



house of the chiet and the mourners wailed un- 
ceasingly. Hiku threw himself beside the couch in 
the darkened room, and called upon the spirit of 
his beloved to return to him. No flutter of life 
moved the still heart; and sobbing he went out 
into the fields. Fitting the magic arrow to his 
bow, he cried: 

"Go, shaft of the gods, and search out the 
place where hides the spirit of Kawelu." 

Wide and long was the arc of its flight Hiku 
followed and saw it fall into a thicket where the 
rocks jut out into the sea at the foot of the great 
mountain. Beating the brush aside he found a 
cavern so deep and dark that eyes could not fathom 
its depth. Without returning to the village, he 
went away into the mountains. For three days he 
gathered vines, and wove them into a rope, long 
and strong, at the end of which he fastened a stout 
cross-bar of wood He cut a cocoanut in halves, 
and taking out the meat, fitted the pieces together 
so that not even the smallest crack could be seen. 
Then, gaunt with sleeplessness, his eyes burning, 
he returned to the house of the chief. 

"Brothers of Kawelu," he said, "your sister is 
not dead. Weakened by grief her body held not 
strongly to the soul, and Milu, the evil one, 
snatched it away. Upon you I call for the strength 
of your stout arms to help rescue it from the deep 
caverns of the earth whither the fiend carried it 

"How know you that this is so?" asked one 
of the brothers. 

58 



The Magic Arrow 



"My death be upon my own head," he kn- 
swered, "if I restore her not." 

At the mouth of the cave Hiku took his bow 
and arrow and the cocoanut shell, and stepping to 
the cross-bar of the swing, told the four brothers 
to lower him into the pit. 

Swinging dizzily like a spider at the end of a 
web, he slipped down, down, till the light gleamed 
like a star above him; down, down, deeper and 
deeper still in the fearful blackness. The air grew 
foul and dank, evil sounds hissed from the crevices 
of the rocky walls, and vile odors choked him. 
Away below a faint spark appeared— a light that 
grew into a glow, then into a radiance; and he 
found himself in a vast cavern, the cavern of Milu, 
the evil god of the underworld. 

On the throne sat the demon, while about him 
were gathered the souls he had stolen; with them, 
her face hidden in her hands, crouched the spirit 
of Kawelu. As Hiku swung above her he called; 
she looked up, and then sprang to his arms. Milu 
shouted, and a tumult of echoes rolled under the 
vaulted roof; he commanded the spirit to leave her 
lover, and at once Hiku's arms were empty, but 
above his head hovered a beautiful white butterfly, 
which he caged in the cocoanut shell. 

When the fiend saw that Hiku held the spirit 
a prisoner, he caught up a lightning dart, but 
swifter still, the magic arrow sprang from the bow 
and buried itself in the heart of the monster. 
Through the son of Hina the gods had rid the 

59 



The Magic Arrow 



world of a dreadful cviL Hiku hastened back to 
the house of the chief, and when he opened the 
shell the rescued spirit entered again into the body 
of Kawelu, and she arose and greeted her lover 
and his mother as though she had but waked from 
a deep, restful sleep. 



60 



The Island of Demons 




RUST how Lanai came to be the 
abode of the demons no one knows 
nowadays, though every little 
naked brown child on the island 
can tell the story of Kau-lu-laau, 
son of an ancient king of Mauai; 
and how he drove the evil spirits 
into the sea, and freed the people 
from their thrall. 

It all happened in the time 
when Mauai had two kings, for one was foolish 
and unfit to rule, though still the rightful sovereign. 
They held their court at Lele, on the shore that 
looks toward the setting sun; and they reigned in 
peace unbroken, except by the wild pranks of the 
son of the wise Idng. Though from the royal 
father himself to the tiniest child playing in the 
sand on the seashore, the people loved the reckless 
youth who was as beautiful as a young god, whose 
eyes were like the dancing waves of the wind- 
swept sea, whose laugh brought an answering 
smile to the sternest fece, who, though lawless, 
was brave and true. 

But one morning the court of Lele was 
plunged in gloom. From palace and hamlet rose 
the high treble of the petition to the gods ; the old 
chiefs sat in the council chamber in moody con- 
ference ; the young men came forth with the right 
half of their heads shaven in token of bereave- 
ment; the maids stealthily wiped the tears from 
their heavy lashes. Crushed with shame the high 

61 



The Island of Demons 



priest stocxi before his desecrated altar; and the 
wise king sat in the darkened palace and mourned 
as for the dead In all the realm of the two sov- 
ereigns the foolish king w^as the only being who 
smiled that day, for Laau, prince of Mauai, was to 
be banished to Lanai, the most fearsome of all the 
eight islands, where swarmed the demons of evil. 

For the prince, in a reckless freak of daring, 
had stolen into the temple in the night, and had 
painted, with the hues of the rainbow, the pure 
white birds that awaited the sacrificial rites for the 
welfare of the mad king. It was an offense against 
the gods and the sacred person of the real sover- 
eign. Swift and terrible fell the punishment; but 
the royal father had laid his head in the dust of 
grief when he pronounced the doom of his son. 

And Laau, proudly alone in his disgrace, 
gathered together the spears and javelins he had 
won in the jousts, and strode down to the beach 
where his canoe lay drawn up on the sand. But 
On the shore beside the boat stood a young chief, 
the son of the chief of the king's council. Since 
the day when they had first strayed away together 
on their own tottering feet, each had been as the 
other's shadow, and in the close bond of their love 
both were prince, or both were chief. 

"It is foolish of you, Kamaka, to draw suspi- 
cious eyes on yourself this way," said Laau, his 
voice choking in his throat "You know that the 
command of the king is that no one shall speak 
to the outcast" 

62 



The Island of Demons 



"But two outcasts may speak to each other. 
Think you that I would let my brother bear the 
disgrace alone for what we did together?" Kama- 
ka drew up his slender, brown shoulders proudly. 
"You forget that I, too, am of the royal line." And 
through the mist of unshed tears each lad looked 
into the heart of the other. 

Then they bent their backs to the canoe, and 
sent it spinning out into the surf. They sprang in 
and the two paddles dipped deep in the water, but 
before they leaned to the stroke the high priest 
strode down into the sea. Laau dropped his pad- 
dle, and stretched out his hands entreatingly to the 
old man. 

"Your pardon, Father Waolani," he sobbed, 
*'giv& me your pardon." 

; "That you have, my prince. It is with the 
voice of the gods I speak, and therefore the king 
cannot be angry. Against the demons of Lanai 
you have no weapon ; javelins injure them not, but 
I have brought you the sacred spear-head of Lono. 
Now, swear by the gods— by the great Kane — 
that when you return to Mauai, as you will some 
day, for the oracles foretell it, swear that you will 
bury the spear-head with my bones, and that no 
one shall know its hiding-place." 

High above his head the prince lifted his hands 
with palms open to the setting sun. "By the gods 
whom I have offended, I swear to return their gift 
in honor retrieved!" Then turning toward the 
dark island rising beyond the wind-swept channel, 

63 



The Island of Demons 



his voice rang across tlje water like the call of the 
trumpet-shell of Kiha. "Fiends of Lanai, listen! 
I, Kaululaau, son of Kakaalaneo, swear by the 
spear-head of Lono that I will bind you and cast 
you into the sea, and will give your island as a 
peace-offering to the gods." Waolani stepped back, 
the lads bent to the paddles again, and the canoe 
shot away from the shore. 

Across the dark water the swift-rolling clouds 
chased the sunshine, and the sea broke in white 
anger on the reef The wind sprung up and 
whipped the waves to flying spray, and the ocean 
heaved like the bed-covering of a restless giant 
All night the frail canoe tossed on the stormy sea; 
now and then the dark shores of Lanai showed 
through the scud of stinging mist, only to vanish 
again like a wraith as the canoe spun around in 
the clutch of the racing waves. Unseen hands 
lifted the outrigger, and the canoe dipped to the 
water; but no splash of wave or fleck of dashing 
spray wet the spot where lay the talisman of the 
gods. 

In the morning the misty outline of Lanai lay 
on the rim of the sea, leagues to the east, and they 
saw that, in the darkness, the wind had blown 
them past the island and out to sea. All day 
they beat into the face of the storm, but, when 
night came on again, the shadow of the land 
seemed as far off as at the beginning of the day. 
Another long night of sleepless watching, of thirst 
and hunger, and of deadly weariness passed; then 

64 




o 
.* c • 

D* Ct "^ 

«. 9* S " ? 

s » s :, S 2. 

•- &.^ n » c^ 
' o » * "^ »♦ 

&> (V 0> 

o 



The Island of Demons 



suddenly out of the fading darkness loomed the 
island, crouching over them like a black and 
dreadful phantom. 

With a last desperate effort they sent the 
canoe through the breakers, up the beach, and 
threw themselves on the sand, and slept They 
slept through the half-light of the dawn, through 
the rosy glow of the rising sun, into the broad, full 
light of day. In his dreams the exiled prince stood 
again in the house of his father, and his disgrace 
weighed heavily on his heart He heard the 
hushed movements of the frightened household; 
now a wail, now a prayer floated vaguely through 
his sleeping fancy; then a confusion of sounds. 
At last a long, shrill cry snapped the thread 
between dream and reality, and he sprang to his 
feet 

Beyond the line of sandy beach lay a cluster 
of huts, and from end to end of the little village 
there surged a wave of lamentation that broke and 
rose again and again. About the huts the tilled 
fields were laid waste; banana trees were broken 
below the blossom, the gardens uprooted, the dykes 
of the taro patches plowed through; and before 
the dreadful calamity the people stood bewildered 
and helpless. They were poor and ignorant, with 
wild, hungry eyes set deep in gaunt faces; clothed 
in tatters of tapa; too wretched even to wonder 
how the strangers came among them ; and between 
their broken cries they told the tale of their suffer- 
ings. 

65 



The Island of Demons 



"Always it is like this," they said " W^e plant 
and till, half-starved, waiting for the harvest ; and 
when it is almost ready, when the crops are green 
on the hillsides, and the taro leaves are grown 
broad and dark, then the gnomes come down from 
the mountains and ravage the fields. We are 
hungry ; our women are too weak to gather sea- 
weed, even from the shallow water, and our chil- 
dren bend in the middle for want of a full stomach 
to support their backs." 

Here an old fisherman took up the story. 
"The evil spirits break down the walls of our fish- 
ponds, and let the fish out into the sea where we 
cannot catch them, for they have wrecked all our 
canoes on the rocks." And he, too, broke into a 
wail that was carried along the shore and up the 
valleys, from throat to throat, till it rolled over the 
whole island in waves of woe. 

"The gods have forgotten the people of Lanai! " 
they cried. 

"Then," said Laau, "we will wake the gods 
with our prayers." 

Close to the mark of the high tide the young 
men built a hut with the leaves of the cocoa palm, 
and thatched it with grass from the hills; and they 
fished and gathered seaweed like the poor among 
whom they lived. Day by day they labored with 
their hands for the food they ate, and the hardy 
life of the Kanaka taught them many things that 
were never learned about a court Laau hid the 
sacred spear-head in a dark corner of the hut, and 

66 



The Island of Demons 



no one knew him for the son of a king, though the 
people looked into his brave young fkce and took 
heart again. 

He encouraged the men to level the terraces 
and to rebuild the banks of the taro patches. 
When it was all done he drew a deep mark in the 
earth with the spear-head of Lono, and the line 
was as a wall of rock, protecting the whole of the 
garden and the village down to the sea, for its 
magic power reached from the sky to the lowest 
depths of the earth. On the beach he set men to 
hewing canoes, others to rebuilding the broken 
walls of the fish-ponds ; the children played una- 
fraid among the shells on the shore, while laughter 
and the music of the hxda were heard again on 
Lanai. 

But one night a dreadful demon found a place 
where a dog had dragged himself across the mark 
of the spear-head, and made an opening in the line. 
The fiend burrowed into the earth, and worked its 
way under a hut where a family were sleeping, 
and when the monster rose from the ground, it 
was as though the earth quaked; the children 
were hurled from their mats, the house was ripped 
from sill to roof- tree; and their cries of distress 
roused the village. As Laau ran he bound the 
spear-head to his javelin, and when he hurled it at 
the fiend, the sacred point foimd its way to the 
wicked heart. Its dying cry echoed among the 
hills till it woke all the gnomes on the island, and 
they flocked to its rescue, the shrill clamor of their 

67 



The Island of Demons 



threats filling the air with a deafening noise. They 
hurled themselves against the magic wall, only to 
fall back shrieking with baffled fury. 

Then Laau saw that the time of the great 
struggle had come. His heart quaked, but he 
grasped his javelin, and went out of the village 
alone, into the raging mob of demons. As he 
crossed the mark of the spear-head the fiends 
rushed upon him. They caught at his hands, they 
hung about his neck, and clutched at his feet; but 
he shook himself free. He swung his javelin about 
him, and the gnomes stood back snarling with 
rage. He cut a groove in the earth about his feet, 
and they tore with their long claws at the rocks 
and soil outside the circle; they blew their vile 
breath in his face, but it eddied in coils of poison- 
ous vapor around the magic ring. 

Back he beat them to the hills, pace by pace, 
line beyond line; suns rose and set, and the nights 
were filled with desperate struggle. He drove 
them over the crest of mountains, herding them 
closer and closer together, down the slope on the 
other side of the island, till, caught at last between 
the vengeance of the gods and the sea, they 
plunged into the waves, and the island of Lanai 
knew them no more. 

Then the bare, rocky land slowly drew a 
cover of green over its gaunt ribs. Flowers 
bloomed on the hillsides, gardens and taro patches 
flourished, and bananas and cocoanuts grew heavy 
on the unbroken trees. 

68 



The Island of Demons 



Then the king sent a pardon to his son, and 
made him chief of the island. When the old priest 
died Laau returned to Maui to fulfil his promise; 
and since that day the sacred spear-head of Lono 
has never been seen by mortal eyes, nor has a 
single demon been caught on Lanai 



69 



The Maid of the Twilight 




MONG the people of old, there 
were weird stories of a secret cav- 
ern, the only entrance to which 
was under the black water of the 
mysterious pool whose surface lies 
three fathoms below the level of 
the Koolau plain. Some said it 
was a favorite retreat of the lizard- 
god; some thought that a magi- 
cian of great power — an evil one — 
lived in the cave, and slipped in and out of his 
abode in the form of a green lizard, or changed to 
an eel, and took an underground passage to the coral 
bed of the deep sea. And because of these fear- 
some tales, the simple folk of the hills traveled the 
long beach path when the sun had drawn the 
light of the world into the ocean; or climbed the 
rougher way that skirted the foot of the mountains 
rather than pass the dread spot after the shadows 
of the cliffs had fallen on the plain. 

Old Mele, of four-score years and ten, who 
sits all day long in the shade of a tiny cabin on 
the Koolau coast, croons an ancient song of the 
pool that she says is true. And this is the tale: 

Once upon a time, when the doors between 
the spirit-land and the mortal were left unguarded 
and gods and demons alike overran the earth, the 
chief who ruled over all Koolau had two daughters, 
who were as unlike as the stormy night is differ- 
ent from the beautiful, radiant evening. Therefore 
the maids were called Pouli and Liu-la, for Pouli 

70 



The Maid of the TwUight 



was dark-browed and frowning, and Liu-la*s laugh- 
ing face was as softly tinted as the twilight sky. 

One day when the plain shimmered in the 
warm sunshine, and the sea surged with slow 
rhythm on the low-lying shore, the two sisters 
called the women of the household, and went 
down to the beach to bathe. Pouli threw herself 
on the warm sand out of reach of the waves, but 
Liu-la plunged into the rolling surf, and swam 
fearlessly out into deep water. Supple and strong, 
her slender brown body slipped through the blue 
water as gracefully as the darting fish, and out- 
stripped even the strongest of the swimmers fol- 
lowing her. Beyond the reef she turned and looked 
back at them, laughing and shaking the salt spray 
from her face— the fairest feice on all the island of 
Oahu. Still laughing she called to her sister; but 
even while she called, a wild terror leaped up in 
her beautiful eyes, and within sight of all the 
women she sank under the waves. 

Then Pouli, still sitting on the sand, covered 
her face with her hands to hide her joy, for to this 
end she had secretly plotted with the evil one of 
the pool. 

In all the grief and lamentation Pouli' s voice 
was the loudest; her tears fell like rain from the 
winter skies. But, by and by, the time of mourn- 
ing passed, and Liu-la became a memory as beau- 
tiful as the twilight for which she was named. 

Many moons had gone when Wohi, son of 
the great chief, returned from the war with new 

71 



Tlie Maid of the TwUight 



honors bestowed by the king, and with a fleet of 
canoes captured from the foe ; and all Koolau, from 
Kahuku to Makapu, and from the mountains to 
the sea, resounded with the chants of welcome. 

Twilight falls early on the Koolau plain, for 
the towering wall of the mountain range catches 
the sun high in the heavens, and flings the shad- 
ows of the frowning rocks far out on the sea In 
the grove of palms before the wide, cool house of 
the chief the shadows of the waning day were 
falling when, at the end of the feast, the old men 
gathered about the warrior to hear his tales of ad- 
venture. Later, in the deepening dusk, the young 
girls came and danced before them, and the sound 
of the rattling gourd and the twang of the ukeke 
echoed through the deep ravines. 

But at the very height of the revel Wohi 
looked up and saw, back in the shadows of the 
grove, the shrinking figure of his lost sister. Her 
beautiful eyes were brimming with tears, and her 
brown arms stretched out imploringly toward him. 
Like a flash of light that moment extinguished, the 
vision struck across his sight and was gone! He 
sprang to his feet and rushed into the enshrouding 
shadows, but no one stirred among the trees, and 
beyond the grove the wide reaches of the plain lay 
bare and open. And Wohi, though a stately 
young chief and a brave warrior, leaned his folded 
arms against a tree with his head bowed upon 
them, and sobbed, for his heart was sore with 
grief. 

72 



The Maid of the Twilight 



When he returned to the grove the people 
were drifting away to their homes ; laughter echoed 
back from the mountains, and the tinkle of high- 
keyed strings blending with the melody of the 
voices came fainter and fainter through the starlit 
gloom. 

But the next night the vision came again ; and 
still a third time. Always in the early twilight it 
flashed across his sight, and vanished His mind 
was troubled, and he went to Pouli and begged 
her to tell him in w^hat manner, and at what place, 
Liu-la had disappeared. 

"For why should a maid," he asked, "who 
was strong, and bred to the sea almost as the dol- 
phins, sink in the quiet channel?" Under his 
searching eyes she stammered her answer, and he 
pressed his questions till she grew angry and left 
him. 

That morning a grizzled old warrior, who had 
followed his young chief in desperate charges on 
dreadful battie-fields, who had fought beside him 
exultingly against fearful numbers, came to Wohi, 
his rugged fece ashen with fear. 

"My chief, I have seen your dead sister; not 
once, but three times. As you know, my house is 
up mountainwards, and my doorway looks toward 
the deep water-hole. Two nights following I 
turned my eyes suddenly, and in the twilight I 
saw a woman sitting by the edge of the pool ; but 
each time she vanished, like the fiash of the sun on 
a flying spear." His voice dropped to a whisper, 

73 



The Maid of the Twilight 



and his knees shook under him. Yesterday I 
returned late from the sea Therefore I took the 
shortest way to my cabin, and as I walked quickly 
along with my eyes on the ground I thought not 
of the pool till I was almost beside it. Suddenly I 
looked up, and there on the long, flat stone that 
lies by the brink sat Liu-la, her chin sunk on her 
breast, and her hands clasped in despair. In that 
same instant she was not ! My hair stood up like 
the spears of an army awaiting the rush of the foe, 
but I had great love for the little maid, and I went 
to the edge and looked down into the pool. Not a 
ripple stirred the black surface of the water, but 
as I turned away I heard plainly the sobs of a 
woman." W^hen the old man finished his tale he 
shook with a heavy chill, and Wohi threw his 
tapa over his shoulders. 

"See that you speak of this to no one," said 
the young chief " If my sister lives I will find her! " 

When the old warrior left him, Wohi hurried 
away to the pool, his eyes searching every crease 
in the ground along the way, following every 
shadow of the fiying clouds. Four times he circled 
the great water-hole, but neither the rocky wall nor 
the dark, mysterious depths betrayed its secret. 

He sat down on the flat rock where the old 
man had seen Liu-la, and his hands dropped 
dejectedly on the sun- warmed stone. Wide and 
lonely the plain lay about him, not even a blade of 
grass moved in the breathless air ; no sound broke 
the tense stillness, nothing lived but himself and a 

74 



The Maid of the Twilight 



small brown lizard half hidden in a crevice of the 
brown rock. 

He watched it, fascinated by the steady gaze 
of the bright questioning eyes. Hesitatingly the 
wee brown creature advanced a tiny foot, then an- 
other, and the sinuous body curved gracefully; but 
with the horror of his race for creeping things he 
sprang away from it. The lizard lay as still as 
the stone itself, but in the wonderful eyes he saw 
the tears well up and overflow. Then like a little 
brown streak, it darted across the rock and disap- 
peared, but from the depths of the pool a long 
quivering sigh broke into a torrent of muffled sobs. 

" Liu-la ! " cried W^ohi, " Liu-la ! " The name 
rolled from cliff to cliff as though the very walls of 
Koolau called the lost maid, but there was no an- 
swer save the heart-breaking sounds. Then he 
remembered that it was only in the twilight that 
she had been seen, and he strode back to the vil- 
lage. 

At the house of his father he found a half- 
score of visiting chiefs, and the customs of hospi- 
tality were rigid. Long they sat over the feast, 
and the light of day faded while they still talked. 
But Wohi's thoughts were with Liu-la, alone 
somewhere in the dark, and frightened, and at last 
he stole away and ran to the pool. 

The night was dark, and on the unmarked 
plain he came upon the water-hole suddenly. As 
he looked up he caught his breath, his feet clung 
to the ground like roots, for there on the stone 

75 



The Maid of the Twilight 



crouched Liu-la, the weight of her woe crushing 
her graceful head to her breast, as the south rain 
beats the white pua kstla to the earth. Even then, 
as though he had closed his eyes and so blotted 
out the vision, she was gone. He sprang to the 
spot where she had been, but there was no one— 
nothing but the little brown lizard almost hidden 
by the darkness as it glided away; but softly on 
the night air broke sobs of unspeakable sadness. 
Wohi returned to his father's house and called his 
elder sister from among the women. 

**What is this?'* he demanded fiercely. 
"What evil have you wrought upon our sister? 
Why does her spirit linger, weeping, about the 
black water-hole on the plain when her body sank 
in the sea?" 

The girl's black brows drew together in an 
angry frown. "Ask of the eels," she taunted. 

But the young chief went away into the heart 
of the mountains, up the big valley where the 
water leaps from the ridge just under the sky and 
breaks into a wind-blown veil of mist There 
under a rainbow he found the cabin of Waka, the 
good sorceress, with whom he talked tiU the stars 
faded from the morning sky. "Forget not," she 
said at parting, "if your eyes rest upon her but for 
the space of the lightning's flash, before she is 
within the circle of ti she will become a lizard 
again ; for the terms of the bond are that she shall 
see and be seen, but only as the wraiths that men 
follow and never possess." 

76 




feHcoc 



"The pool looked dark 

and treacherous, but calling 

to the goda to help him he 

leaped to the slimy 

bottom." 



The Maid of the Twilight 



While the shadows still lay in hiding under 
the rocks, Wohi went again to the water-hole, 
this time with two girdles woven of the leaves of 
the ti-plant that the demons fear. The sun shone 
straight down on the surface of the pool, and lit 
up every crevice on the wall. Even in the blaze 
of the noonday sun the pool looked dark and 
treacherous; but he called upon the gods to help 
him, and climbed resolutely down till his feet 
touched the water. A cold chill struck to his 
bones, and his heart throbbed in his throat, but he 
loosened his hold on the rocks and dropped to the 
slimy bottom. Up he struck for the surface again, 
and the warm sun on his face gave him courage. 
Again and again he dived, groping along the face 
of the slippery stones, and at last his wandering 
hands felt an opening in the jagged wall. 

He rose to the air and breathed, then plunged 
swiftly and entered the passage. On his hands 
and knees he worked his way through a tunnel 
full of water, and so narrow that the sharp rocks 
cut his shoulders and back. His temples throbbed, 
and a roar like that of an angry surf thundered in 
his ears. He longed to gasp —just once, his chest 
seemed splitting — when suddenly a wind like the 
breath of the gods struck across his face, and he 
crept out on a dry floor of stone, breathing pain- 
fully. The place was as dark as the cavern of 
Pele when she sleeps, and he listened, his flesh 
creeping with a chill of fear, his heart pounding 
his ribs. 

11 



The Maid of the Twilight 



"Liu-la!" he caUed. "Are you here?" Only 
the echoes answered. 

"Liu-la I" he called again. "It is Wohi, your 
brother. Speak!" 

A gasping, incredulous cry greeted him, two 
trembling hands met his and clung desperately. 

"You, Wohi I How did you know?" 

There was no time to answer, and in the 
dense blackness he loosened one of the girdles 
from his waist and bound it about her. 

"Come," he said. "We will go home now, 
little sister of the twilight." 

In all Koolau no one slept that night. The 
people wept for joy and wailed for pure happiness ; 
and the old minstrels sang the songs of the great 
ancestors of Wohi and Liu-la. Then some one 
made a new song about the maid of the twilight 
and the little brown lizard ; and that is the one old 
Mele sings today in the shade of the tiny cabin on 
the Koolau coast. 



78 




The Culprit Star 

NHURRIED, the great sun 
crossed the azure arch of the sky, 
and sank into the sea, and soft, 
dusky twilight fell over the earth. 
High above the ocean, and glint- 
ing the restless waves, a radiant 
star sprang to its place in the dark- 
ening blue, and looked down on 
the humble folk-life of the island 
of Hawaii. Here and there it 
darted its friendly beams into the deepening 
shadows; it peered under the waving palms; it 
burnished the weather-beaten thatch of a house, 
and gleamed along the haft of an idle spear. 

More wonderful even than the genii of the 
present day, who look through solid things with 
their strange green light, it sent its bright rays into 
the blackest heart, and into the deepest mind. It 
knew all the hidden bad, and the undiscovered 
good; all the selfish, and all the generous motives; 
all the secret sorrows, and the concealed joys. And 
though it had watched the world for ages — had 
known each passing generation for eons of time, 
it found infinite variety, and it quivered with in- 
finite comprehension. It laughed in the face of 
the wee babe when it stretched its tiny, brown 
hands to catch the bright rays; it looked into the 
tired eyes of the great king mth friendly sympathy. 
One night when the wise star shone down 
into the shadowy greens of the island forest, it 
flashed across the face of a stalwart youth swinging 

79 



The Culprit Star 

sturdily up the mountain path from the village by 
the sea It knew him well, and knew how often 
he traveled the mountain path, and why. He was 
the strongest, fleetest runner in the king's service. 
At each stroke of his paddle his canoe shot a 
double spear's length through the stormiest water; 
the flight of his arrow was the longest; the aim of 
his javelin the truest of all the young warriors. 

And each night the star smiled into a shel- 
tered nook by the sea, and took account of the 
day's work on a tiny house building under the 
waving lances of the palms. From the evening 
when the young people of the village danced 
beside the freshly hewn timbers, to the last plait 
of the thatch, the star watched its growth; for it was 
in the twilight that the king's young runner had 
first looked into the laughing eyes of the mountain 
maid, and it was in the same soft radiance between 
daylight and dark that, together, they chose the 
quiet little cove for their new home. And at last 
the house was finished, and the mats and tapas 
and calabashes were ready for the fiimishing. 

The young man looked up and smiled at the 
star, for it made him think of the eyes of the maid 
when the cloud of her long, thick lashes suddenly 
lifted, and fell again. At the thought he hurried 
his swinging strides till he came in sight of a fire 
over which bent the slender figure of the girl He 
stepped eagerly into the circle of light 

"It is Pele herself," he said, laughing, as he 
threw down his gift of silvery fish fresh from the 

80 




" Half-Strangled with 

deadly vapor, panting with 

fear, they ran, a sinuous 

stream of living fire 

sweeping after 

them." 



The Culprit Star 

sea She lifted a warning hand and shook her head. 

"True," said the young man teasingly, "I am 
wrong. Pele was never so beautiful." 

"Hush! " said the girl in a frightened whisper. 
"One must not speak so of the gods." 

"What matter," laughed the lad. "Pele 
sleeps sound these days." 

Up in the great cavern on the top of the 
mountain the vigilant star saw a spark of fire, and 
knew that the goddess was awake, and angry. 
Suddenly as it watched from the peaceful sky, 
there came from the rocks a sound like the 
crash of thunder. A column of smoke, dark and 
thick, shot out from the place where dwelt the 
goddess of fire, and as it rose, it rolled over the 
mountain, and shut out the light of the stars. 
Dense and choking it spread from rim to rim of 
the ocean, and under it was unbroken blackness. 

The earth heaved as in a throe of agony, 
great rocks broke from the cliffs and crashed 
through the forest; and the lad and the girl clung 
together in speechless terror. Then with a roar 
the side of the mountain split open, and from the 
gaping rent there flowed a torrent of molten lava 
that lit up the forest like the noonday sun. It 
crisped the green to tinder, it charred the trees to 
blackened stumps, and turned the clouds to flam- 
ing swords. 

Half strangled with deadly vapor, panting 
with fear, they ran, a sinuous stream of living fire 
sweeping after them. The air grew black again 

81 



The Culprit Star 

with the smoke of the burning trees mingled with 
the sulphurous fumes of Pele's breath, and hot 
ashes sifted over them. Tripping, stumbling, they 
struggled through the awful chaos till they felt the 
cool sands of the seashore under their feet 

"Now, O gods, help us!" cried the boy de- 
spairingly. "A boat is here I know, but the dark- 
ness hides it from my eyes I " 

Suddenly a rift opened in the thick clouds, 
and the blazing star flung a ray of light across the 
water; it rimmed the black waves with silver, and 
lit up the prow of a canoe rocking on the ebb-tide. 
They sprang in and shoved it clear of the sand as 
the seething lava flowed, hissing, into the sea 
Desperately their paddles dipped in the black 
water, and the canoe shot away from the treach- 
erous shore. 

When the sun set again on the torn and des- 
olate island, there in the fathomless blue of the 
darkening sky shone the star, but radiant no 
longer, for it had lost forever its brightest ray. 
One blazing point was broken. 

It had thwarted the will of one of the most 
powerful gods, and its doom came swiftly. Struck 
from the heavens, it fell spinning dizzily through 
the cloudless ether. Faster and faster grew its 
pace, shrinking, whirling, falling; past other stars 
that looked coldly on at its degradation ; past the 
pale moon. Away in the distance floated the 
earth growing larger and nearer, till at length it 
seemed to reach out an invisible hand and snatch 

82 



The Culprit Star 

the quivering thing to the cool, moist bosom of 
the ocean. 

Long it rocked on the gentle tides, but one 
day a rolling wave carried it high up on a lonely- 
shore, and left it there— a living star no longer, 
but a wee, dark thing that sank into the warm 
sand and lay still. 

How long it lay there no one knows, but 
from the place where the culprit star had hidden 
itself from the sparkling heavens, there grew up a 
dark green shrub, that spread over the barren 
sands, and opened to the smiling sky hundreds of 
dainty, white blossoms. But every one of the 
wee star flowers had lost a petal 



83 



Here ends The Princess ofManoa &^ Other 
Tales of Old Hawaii by Emily Foster Day. 
The decorations &^ illustrations by D. Howard 
Hitchcock. The t5^ographical arrangement 
designed by J. H. Nash. Published by Paul 
Elder and Company, and printed for them at 
The Tomoye Press, New York City, MCMVI. 



91J^V¥, 



